Nigel Railton (born January 1967) is a British accountant and business executive who has been chair of

Post Office Limited Post Office Limited, formerly Post Office Counters Limited and commonly known as the Post Office, is a state-owned retail post office company in the United Kingdom that provides a wide range of postal and non-postal related products including po ...

since May 2024. Previously, he had a long career with lottery operator

Camelot Group Camelot Group was an operator of lotteries, particularly the UK National Lottery from 1994 to 2024. It has also operated the Illinois State Lottery in the state of Illinois in the United States since 2018. The Camelot Group companies, of wh ...

where he was chief executive of Camelot UK from 2017 to 2023.

Early life

Railton was born in January 1967 and brought up in

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the parish had a population of 55,318 and the built-up area had a population of 74,120. ...

, Cheshire, where the family lived in a

council flat A council house, corporation house or council flat is a form of British public housing built by local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing a number of council houses and other amenities like schools and shops. Constru ...

. On leaving school at age 16 he joined

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

, a significant employer in the town, in a clerical role. He moved into accounting roles, and while continuing to work for British Rail, he took night classes in

management accounting In management accounting or managerial accounting, managers use accounting information in decision-making and to assist in the management and performance of their control functions. Definition One simple definition of management accounting is th ...

, leading to a

CIMA Cima may refer to: Acronyms *The Center for International Media Assistance, a media development organization in Washington, DC * Center for Italian Modern Art * Centre International de la Mécanique d'Art (International centre for Art Mechanics), ...

qualification in 1995.

Career

After leaving British Rail in 1995, Railton worked at Black and Decker UK and then

Daewoo Motors Daewoo Motors ( ) was a South Korean Automotive industry, automotive company established in 1937 as "National Motors". The company changed its name several times until 1982 when it became "Daewoo Motors" following its acquisition by the Daewoo, ...

. In 1998, he joined

Camelot Camelot is a legendary castle and Royal court, court associated with King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described ...

, the operator of the UK's National Lottery, where he became finance director in 2006. From 2014 he was CEO of Camelot Global, responsible for the group's operations outside the UK, then in November 2017 was appointed as CEO of Camelot UK Lotteries Limited. He described his role as leading a "turnaround and relative rebuilding of the business" at a time of declining sales and reduced market share. He left Camelot in February 2023, around the time that Camelot UK was acquired by Allwyn Entertainment, following the 2022 decision by the

Gambling Commission The Gambling Commission is an executive, non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for regulating gambling and supervising gaming law in Great Britain. Its remit covers arcades, betting, bingo, casin ...

to award the renewal of the National Lottery franchise to Allwyn. In May 2024, Railton was appointed by

Kemi Badenoch Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch (' Adegoke; born 2 January 1980) is a British politician who has served as Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservati ...

Secretary of State for Business and Trade The secretary of state for business and trade (business secretary), is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Department for Business and Trade. The incumb ...

, as interim chair (for 12 months) of the state-owned body

, replacing Henry Staunton who had been sacked by Badenoch in January. At this time the Post Office was involved in paying compensation to its branch operators who had been accused, and in many cases prosecuted, because of faults in the

Horizon computer system The British Post Office scandal, also called the Horizon IT scandal, involved the Post Office pursuing thousands of innocent subpostmasters for apparent financial shortfalls caused by faults in Horizon, an accounting software system developed by ...

. The scandal was the subject of an ongoing public inquiry, and the Post Office was facing increased costs and delays in its project to replace Horizon. Soon after taking up the role, Railton launched a strategic review into the future of the business which was expected to be discussed with the government in October 2024. In May 2025, Railton was appointed as the permanent chair, contracted until May 2028. Railton is also non-executive chair of Argentex Group, a company providing risk management to businesses in the areas of foreign exchange and interest rates, which he joined as a non-executive director in 2019. He had past non-executive appointments at Uthingo (South Africa) and at Premier Lotteries Ireland.

References

External links

BBC video
(1:27) in the ''CEO Secrets'' strand, 19 February 2020 {{DEFAULTSORT:Railton, Nigel 1967 births British retail chief executives English chief executives Living people