LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 2, 2026--
The Access Group has appointed Sally Johnson as its new Chief Financial Officer, effective 1 June 2026. Sally joins from Pearson plc, where she served as CFO for six years and brings more than 25 years of experience across strategic finance, M&A, business transformation and investor relations in large and complex global organisations.
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Her appointment follows the retirement of Rob Binns, who steps down after seven years as CFO of The Access Group. Rob has been a trusted and defining presence throughout some of the Group’s most significant chapters and leaves with the whole business's enormous gratitude. Rob and Sally will work closely together to ensure a smooth and seamless handover.
As CFO of Pearson plc, a FTSE 100 education company, Sally led significant value creation and business and investment transformation. Before this, she held several senior finance roles, including Deputy CFO and SVP Divisional Finance, where she led enterprise-wide transformation programmes, oversaw global ERP and shared services implementations across multiple geographies, and led a global finance team of 500 people.
Prior to Pearson, Sally held finance leadership roles at Dorling Kindersley and Penguin Group and began her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She also serves as a Non-Executive Director and Audit Chair at Rentokil Initial.
Commenting on her appointment, Sally said:
“I’m extremely excited to join Access at such a pivotal moment. I admire the company’s journey, exceptional growth, strong ambition and that the business consistently backs itself. Joining as the technology landscape is being fundamentally reshaped by AI makes it even more compelling - Access is already taking a lead in this space and I’m thrilled to be part of what comes next. I can’t wait to get started.”
Rob Binns joined The Access Group in 2019 and has played a central role in the Group’s growth ever since, providing financial leadership and steady judgment through some of its most defining moments.
Commenting on his retirement, Rob Binns said:
“It has been an honour to be part of the Access journey, watching this business grow, evolve and push boundaries has been genuinely exciting. I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built together, and none of it would have been possible without the brilliant finance team, who have given so much along the way. I have every confidence that Sally will take it to new heights, and I couldn’t wish for a better person to hand the baton to.”
Chris Bayne, Co-CEO of The Access Group, said:
“Rob has been an outstanding CFO and an integral part of everything we have built over the past seven years. His steady hand, judgment and commitment to this business have been invaluable, and he deserves every bit of his retirement. We are delighted to welcome Sally. Her experience leading finance at scale, through transformation and growth, is exactly what Access needs as we accelerate our AI ambitions. I have no doubt she will make an immediate and lasting impact.”
Sally Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, The Access Group
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Police blasted water cannons Wednesday at protesters in Northern Ireland who set small fires and hurled bricks, rocks and bottles at them during a second night of violence over a brutal stabbing on a Belfast street.
Demonstrators wearing masks tore bricks from the walls outside homes and smashed sidewalks with sledgehammers to toss at riot police. In one place, the unruly crowd used sections of a dismantled a picket fence to take cover on the street.
The clashes with police came several hours after a 30-year-old man from Sudan appeared in a Belfast court charged with attempted murder in a stabbing attack that left a man seriously injured and triggered anti-immigrant violence.
Hadi Alodid, 30, was ordered held in jail after appearing by video in Belfast Magistrates’ Court, where a detective said he blinded Stephen Ogilvie in the left eye during the knife attack. He was also charged with possessing a knife and threatening to kill a radiographer while being treated for a hand injury after the assault.
When police arrived at the crime scene, they found Alodid on the man, armed with a kitchen knife, the detective said. Alodid later told hospital staff: “I’ve killed someone, I don’t know if they are dead,” and said, “I will kill you."
He refused legal representation through an Arabic interpreter and did not enter a plea.
Police were prepared for more violence after masked men on Tuesday set fire to several homes they believed to house immigrants, burned trash bins, torched a Belfast bus and pelted police with objects.
Firefighters rescued several people from burning houses and more than two dozen people were left homeless.
Anselme Shima, a Belfast resident originally from Congo, said he saw smoke from burning vehicles near his home.
“I’ve lived on my street for almost 10 years, I have a good relationship with my neighbors, but last night was a horrific one,” he said. “We don’t know what to do. I’m scared. Seeing this, I’m wondering if I’m next.”
Families, one with a baby, were rescued and taken to police stations for safety, Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said.
“These weren’t just families from ethnic minority communities, these were families from across communities that were caught up in this vile behavior last night," Boutcher told the BBC. “There is absolutely no excuse for it.”
Boutcher said 200 more officers would be on the streets Wednesday and the PSNI was calling in support from other forces. Bus and train operators in Belfast said they would stop services early because of expected protests.
Ogilvie’s family appealed for an end to the violence and said migrants “make a deeply valuable contribution to our country.”
“We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility,” the family said in a statement.
Politicians from both parts of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government condemned the violence. First Minister Michelle O’Neill of Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein said it was “thuggery.”
“Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice,” she said.
Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, of the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party, said that “taking frustration at the evil actions of a person out on those who had no part in it is utterly wrong.”
Monday’s attack, caught in video footage that quickly spread on social media, was seized on by anti-immigration activists. Ogilvie, a man in his 40s, was hospitalized with deep cuts to his head, face and back.
Police said Alodid entered Northern Ireland from the neighboring Republic of Ireland in 2023, applied for asylum and was given a 5-year permit to remain.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said there is no information to suggest the attack was terrorism-related.
Protests were encouraged online by far-right activists, and the street violence erupted despite politicians' calls for calm.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the stabbing attack as “sickening,” but said violence against people based on their background would not be tolerated.
“The scenes in Belfast last night were shocking and completely unacceptable," Starmer said on X. “There is no justification for the violence and disorder that we saw threatening our communities, nor for those who encouraged it, online or elsewhere.”
Northern Ireland Justice Minister Naomi Long said social media agitators who “yesterday would have struggled to find Belfast on a map” were “weaponizing” the fears of local people.
“If you’re driving people from their homes based on nothing but the color of their skin, you can’t dress that up any other way, it’s racism, and those bad faith actors need to take a step back,” she told the BBC.
Some politicians said the stabbing should spark a review of the open border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K., and the Republic of Ireland.
The border is a highly sensitive issue. Allowing the free flow of people is a major pillar of the peace process that largely ended decades of violence known as “The Troubles.” The conflict involving Irish Republican and British Loyalist militants and U.K. security forces left almost 3,600 people dead before a 1998 peace accord.
Much of Tuesday’s violence took place in working-class areas where former paramilitary groups still hold considerable sway over the streets.
Last week a separate case of a university student who was stabbed to death in Southampton, England, in December was seized on by activists and U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who blamed immigration for the violence, an idea rejected by Starmer and other British politicians.
Henry Nowak, who was white, was killed by Vickrum Digwa, a Sikh who falsely claimed to police that he was the victim of a racist assault by Nowak. When police officers arrived, they initially treated the wounded Nowak as a suspect before noticing his injury and trying to resuscitate him.
Digwa was convicted of murder and sentenced last week to life in prison with a minimum 21-year term. A protest over Nowak’s death turned violent, with some attacking police with chairs and rocks. Several people were charged with violent disorder.
Lawless reported from London. Brian Melley contributed to this story.
Jamie Corrie stands beside his burnt out house after rioting broke out late Tuesday, in east Belfast, Northern Ireland, Wednesday, June 10, 2026, following a stabbing incident. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Vehicles set on fire by protesters burn on Lendrick Street in east Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, after the arrest of a Sudanese man accused of stabbing a man in the northern part of the city. (PA via AP)
People watch as firemen arrive to put out vehicle that was set alight during a protest in East Belfast following a stabbing incident in Belfast, Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
This is a court artist drawing by Elizabeth Cook of Sudanese national Hadi Alodid, 30 appearing via videolink at Belfast Magistrates Court, Belfast, Wednesday, June 10, 2026, after a stabbing attack. (Elizabeth Cook/PA via AP)
A worker clear up the debris in front of a burnt out bus, after rioting broke out late Tuesday, in east Belfast, Northern Ireland, Wednesday, June 10, 2026, following a stabbing incident. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
A woman walks past burnt out houses after rioting broke out late Tuesday, in east Belfast, Northern Ireland, Wednesday, June 10, 2026, following a stabbing incident. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
People watch as a vehicle burns during a protest following a stabbing incident in North Belfast, Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
A building is set light to by protesters in central Belfast following a stabbing incident in Belfast, Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Masked protesters stand by burning trash containers on Ligoniel Road in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, after the arrest of a Sudanese man accused of stabbing a man in the northern part of the city. (PA via AP)
Police vehicles come under attack from protesters following a stabbing incident in Belfast, Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Vehicles set on fire by protesters burn on Lendrick Street in east Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, after the arrest of a Sudanese man accused of stabbing a man in the northern part of the city. (PA via AP)
