Vennells began her career as a graduate trainee at Unilever in 1981. She went on to work for L'Oreal, Dixons Retail, Argos, and Whitbread. In 2007, she joined the Post Office as Group Network Director. On 1 April 2012, she became its Chief Executive Officer. During her time as CEO, the Post Office went from losing £120 million a year to making a profit. In February 2019, it was announced that she would step down from her Post Office role and in April that year took over as chair of Imperial College Healthcare Trust, which runs St Mary's, Hammersmith, Queen Charlotte's, Charing Cross and the Western Eye Hospital in north-west London. She also became a non-executive board member of the Cabinet Office. In December 2019, the Post Office paid out £58 million to sub-postmasters who were awarded compensation for past false prosecutions of monetary theft that had been based on faulty evidence from the Horizon IT system. The judge presiding on the case, Mr Justice Fraser, described the Post Office's approach to the case as "institutional obstinacy" that: Vennells subsequently apologised to workers affected by the scandal, saying: In January 2020, as the High Court case against the Post Office ended, Vennells’s tenure as CEO was strongly criticised by Conservative peer Lord Arbuthnot, who said: “The hallmark of Paula Vennells’ time as CEO was that she was willing to accept appalling advice from people in her management and legal teams. The consequences of this were far-reaching for the Post Office and devastating for the subpostmasters. However, there seem to have been no consequences for her”. He described the behaviour of the Post Office under her leadership as “both cruel and incompetent”, and said that “she was faced with a moral choice and she took the wrong one, the one which allowed hundreds of subpostmasters to be falsely accused, humiliated and ruined by the organisation she ran”. In early March 2020, she resigned from her Cabinet Office position. On 19 March 2020, Vennells was harshly criticised in the House of Commons, particularly by Kevan Jones, MP for North Durham, who said: In a BBC Panorama programme screened on 8 June 2020, reporter Nick Wallis is seen phoning Vennells, who terminates the call rather than answer his questions. Wallis says "this is one of the biggest frustrations of covering this story...the consistent refusal of the Chief Executive and the people at the top to answer serious questions about what has been happening". Vennells was due to appear before a parliamentary select committee to answer questions about the scandal on 24 March 2020, but this was cancelled due to the Coronavirus crisis and MPs' questions are being dealt with in writing. The Care Quality Commission is due to discuss concerns about her continuing role in the NHS on 8 July 2020.
Ordained ministry
From 2002 to 2005, Vennells trained for Holy Orders on the St Albans and Oxford Ministry Course. She was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 2005 and as a priest in 2006. Since ordination, she has served as a non-stipendiary minister at Church of St Owen, Bromham in the Diocese of St Albans. On 14 June 2020 Vennells’s handling of the Post Office scandal and the relationship with her role as a priest were highlighted by the BBC’s morning religious radio programme. A convicted former postmaster called for the Bishop of St Albans to strip Vennells of office, Labour MP Chi Onwurah said she must be held accountable, and journalist Nick Wallis reported “real anger” that Vennells appeared to have been protected by “the establishment” including the Church of England, which many see as immoral. The church refused to take part but a statement from the Bishop said that he would consider acting if he received conclusive evidence of her wrongdoing.
