New Chairman, Vice Chairman and members for the Consumer Panel

Colin Brown, currently Vice Chair of the Panel, will take over as Chairman for a two year term from 1 January 2001. Barbara Saunders, the current Chairman, is standing down after a four year stint as the Chairman of the PIA Consumer Panel followed by two years as the Chairman of the Financial Services Consumer Panel.

Colin Brown is an independent consultant specialising in consumer affairs and was previously Deputy Director of Research at Consumers Association. Before that he was a Senior Fellow at the Policy Studies Institute.

The Panels new Vice Chairman from 1 January 2001 will be Ann Foster. Ann is former Director of Government Affairs at Monsanto and has twenty years experience in the field of consumer affairs. She is a former Director of the Scottish Consumer Council.

Other appointments announced today are:

• Harriet Hall (w.e.f.1 January 2001)
  Solicitor with considerable experience of consumer policy and retail financial services. Harriet is a legal officer with National Consumer Council, where she has worked on the needs of low income consumers, banking, credit, mortgages, regulation of equity release and long-term care insurance, the Financial Services and Markets Bill and the proposed EU directive on distance selling of financial services.

• Dianne Hayter (w.e.f.1 January 2001)
  Currently Chief Executive involved in establishing a new medical charity, the Pelican Centre. Dianne is a former Director of Corporate Affairs for Wellcome Trust. She has substantial voluntary sector and trade union experience.

• John Howard (w.e.f.1 October 2000)
  Solicitor with extensive experience as a former presenter/editor of the daily consumer programme on Radio 4 You and Yours. John is currently a freelance broadcaster and his work includes presenting personal finance TV programmes. He is a member of Mortgage Code Compliance Board.

• Vinod Kumar (w.e.f.1 October 2000)
  Social scientist with market research skills and extensive voluntary and public sector experience of policy analysis and research. Now retired, Vinod has previously worked for the Commission for Racial Equality and was Head of Policy and Research at the Royal National Institute for Deaf People. He is currently Non-Executive Director of Barnet Health Authority, Board member of the South Barnet Primary Care Group and member of the Consumer Liaison Group of the Medical Research Council.

• Paul Salvidge (w.e.f.1 October 2000)
  Paul is a former Senior Civil Servant with extensive experience of regulatory work, employment law, competition, consumer protection, telecommunications, financial services and company law. He was previously Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs Director at the Department of Trade and Industry.

• Richard Smethurst (re-appointment)
  Member of the Panel since December 1998. Richard is Provost of Worcester College Oxford University. He is former chair of the Training Standards Panel of IMRO, of which he is a former non-executive director. He has served as an economic adviser in Whitehall, and the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, where he was Deputy Chairman. He lectures widely on financial and economic topics to businessmen and adult education groups. He is President of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education.

• David Watts (re-appointment)
  Member of the Panel since December 1998. Dave is a partner in a media business which is involved in publishing, editing and journalism. He is a former Which? and Money Which? Editor and former Assistant Director of Consumers Association. He was also a policyholder representative on the Insurance Brokers Registration Council for nine years.

• Catherine Whitehead (w.e.f.1 January 2002)
  A Lay Member of Compliance and Supervision Committee of the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors. Catherine was formerly the County Trading Standards Officer for Staffordshire and Chairman of the Fair Trading Group for the Local Authority Co-ordinating Body on Food and Trading Standards.

FSA Chairman Howard Davies said:

I am delighted that we have been able to appoint such a high quality team of people. They will bring a valuable range of skills and experience to the Consumer Panel. I have no doubt that these people, together with the existing Panel members, will ensure that the Panel continues to act as a strong, independent consumer voice within the FSA.

On behalf of the FSA I would like to thank Barbara Saunders, the current Chairman of the Panel, for her dedicated work in leading the Consumer Panel during the important formative years of its existence.

Notes for editors

1. The Financial Services and Markets Act requires the FSA to establish a panel of persons to represent consumers as part of the arrangements it must make for consulting consumers on its general policies and practices. The Financial Services Consumer Panel was established by the FSA in December 1998, ahead of this legislation.

2. The Consumer Panel receives an annual budget and staff support from the FSA but is independent of the FSA in its views.

3. All appointments to the Panel were made following an open selection process conducted in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments. In response to advertisements in the press, 775 people requested information packs, of which 308 made formal applications. The appointment of the Chairman is made by the FSA with the approval of the Treasury.

4. Barbara Saunders, the current Chairman of the Panel, will stand down at the end of the year. In addition, the following people have already left the Panel or will leave at the end of the year: Joan Harbison, Noel Hunter and Gerry Lanchin.

5. The following people will remain on the Panel: Jean Gaffin, Yvonne Gallacher, Nick Pearson and Jane Vass. Brief biographical details for these members can be found on the Panels website: www.fs-cp.org.uk.

6. The FSA regulates the financial services industry and has four objectives under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000: maintaining market confidence; promoting public understanding of the financial system; the protection of consumers; and fighting financial crime.

7. The FSA aims to maintain efficient, orderly and clean financial markets and help retail consumers achieve a fair deal.