The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has today (18 March 2025) announced the appointment of two new non-executive board members – Sachin Jogia and Indro Mukerjee. 

Non-executive board members are senior figures from outside government, appointed to provide challenge to government departments. All non-executive board member appointments are made in line with the Governance Code on Public Appointments. 

Sachin and Indro begin their appointments today, with their terms lasting for three years. 

The Defra board provides strategic, corporate leadership to the department and has particular responsibility for monitoring performance and delivery. 

Biographies

Sachin Jogia

Sachin Jogia has a technology and product leadership background across global organisations, most recently as Group Director of Technology Strategy and Transformation at Sky.

Previously, he was Chief Technology Officer at Ofcom, overseeing innovation across the areas they regulate including online safety, broadcasting and telecoms. Before that, he spent nine years at Amazon in the UK and USA, most recently as General Manager for Alexa Smart Home International.

Sachin was the founding Chairman of the British Heart Foundation’s Technology Advisory Group and has championed initiatives supporting disadvantaged communities, including Amazon Future Engineer. He is a Trustee and non-executive director at City Year UK, a founding member of the Corporate Advisory Board at Save The Children UK and has mentored Imperial College students and senior leaders with BeTheBusiness.

Indro Mukerjee

Indro was CEO of Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, for three and half years until September 2024.

He is a highly experienced business leader, with CEO experience across technology and industrial businesses from multinationals to startups and private equity-backed ventures.

With a global career spanning Asia, the US, and Europe, Indro has led innovation, fast growth, spinouts, M&A, and business transformation across many different business situations. He has been strongly committed to supporting skills development, including co-founding and chairing the UK Electronics Skills Foundation.

He has an engineering degree from Oxford University, a graduate of the Wharton Advanced Management Program, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Academy of Medical Sciences.