Defra has appointed five new members to its departmental board.
Henry Dimbleby takes on the role of lead non-executive board member with Elizabeth Buchanan, Lizzie Noel, Ben Goldsmith and Colin Day appointed as non-executive board members.
Colin Day will chair the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee from July 2018.
Restaurateur, Dimbleby was co-founder of the Leon restaurant chain and was strategy consultant at Bain & Company.
Day recently retired as chief executive of Essentra and is currently a non-executive director and audit committee chair at Meggitt and at FM Global. He has served as a non-executive director on the boards of Amec Foster Wheeler, WPP, Cadbury, Imperial Brands and Easyjet.
Goldsmith is chief executive of Menhaden Capital Management LLP which manages London-listed investment trust Menhaden Capital plc which invests in business opportunities arising from the efficient use of energy and resources.
Noel is chief executive of Hemera Data Science training and consulting provider. She was a founder of training, consulting and technology firm Tribal Group where she was director of communications from start up to annual revenues of £200 million.
Buchanan is a special advisor to Waitrose, Dairy Crest and tsports marketing and communications company, the Chime Group. She was formerly press secretary to Lady Thatcher the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.
Non-executive board members are appointed by the Secretary of State and are not civil servants.