In the Parliamentary reshuffle, Whitehall will gain a bright streak of blue or red or purple as the brightly-maned Baroness Lucy Neville-Rolfe joins the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as minister for intellectual property. The newly-created role is as yet undefined, but Neville-Rolfe will have responsibility over business in the House of Lords.

The baroness stepped down from a number of charitable and corporate boards in order to accept the appointment, notably including a non-executive directorship of ITV. She was formerly the executive director of corporate and legal affairs at Tesco and one of the few board members of a FTSE 100 company responsible for communications. During her 15-year tenure at Tesco she oversaw the supermarket’s massive expansion through acquisition and brand development.

On her appointment to the ITV board, Archie Norman, chairman of ITV plc, said, “We have embarked on a journey to transform ITV over the next five years which not only requires a strategic change of direction but also changes to ITV’s management, culture and organisation. As part of this process we set out to create a lean, high calibre board, and Lucy brings to ITV a unique combination of consumer and governmental experience as well as sheer intellectual calibre. We have searched extensively for the right additional non-executive and I am delighted Lucy is joining us.”

The media company unveiled a massive, company-wide rebrand on 14 January 2014 in order to unify its brands and sub-brands and create a more well-defined brand personality.

Neville-Rolfe is the only non-MP appointed to a role in BIS as part of the reshuffle. Her experience in politics dates to 1973 when she worked for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food before ascending to the Department of the Deregulation Unit in the Cabinet Office in 1995.