Panel members' biographies
Updated 16 July 2024
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Jo Armstrong
Jo was appointed in May 2020. She has operated as a business economist and corporate financier in financial services, oil and gas and government, and has worked extensively with regulatory bodies including Ofgem, the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, and the Scottish Housing Regulator. Currently, she is the Chair of the Accounts Commission for Scotland, the Independent Chair of the Hub West Scotland PPP, and Chair of the Wheatley Group.
Humphrey Battcock
Humphrey was appointed in April 2018. He has worked in private equity for 30 years and was, until 2017, a managing partner at Advent International, one of the world’s leading private equity firms, stepping down from its 5-man global Executive Committee and chair of the European Investment Advisory Committee. He is currently a non-executive director of Cambridge Innovation Capital plc. He is also chair of the Institute for Research in Schools and is on the Cambridge University Campaign Board and Centre for Homelessness Impact Board, and a trustee of Sadler’s Wells and Teach First.
Robin Cohen
Robin was appointed in October 2018. In June 2018, Robin retired as a Vice President of Charles River Associates where he worked across the energy and competition practices. He was previously a Partner at Deloitte from 2002 to 2013 where he led the Economic Consulting practice. He has also been a Partner at Arthur Andersen (Business Consulting, Strategy Finance and Economics) from 1999 to 2002. He has over 30 years of experience in economic consulting, providing advice to governments, regulators and corporates across multiple sectors including energy water and financial services. He has acted as the independent expert in regulatory and commercial disputes in the context of regulatory proceedings, litigation and arbitration. Since retiring from CRA, he continues to consult to a range of clients outside of the UK. In September 2022, Robin was appointed a Member of the UK Endorsement Board. Robin has a PhD in Economics.
Maria Da Cunha
Maria was appointed in February 2019 and is also a member of the CMA’s specialist communications and utility panels. She is currently a non-executive director of International Distribution Services Ltd and London & Quadrant Housing Trust. She was previously General Counsel and Director of HR at British Airways plc and a trustee of Community Integrated Care. On 1 September 2022 Maria joined the Board of Irwin Mitchell Holdings Ltd.
Margot Daly
Margot was appointed an Inquiry Chair of the CMA in September 2021, having been appointed a panel member in May 2020. She is currently a non-executive board director and chair of the audit and risk committee at the NAAFI, the organisation that provides hospitality and retails services to British servicemen and women around the world. She is also chair of the board of trustees at Gamcare, the UK leading provider of clinical and education services for problem gamblers and affected others. She serves as an ad hoc independent business consultant. Previously she held Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer positions in FTSE listed and privately held companies, served as a non-executive director at Sport Resolutions UK and most recently as a panel member at the Competition Appeal Tribunal. She holds a master’s in competition economics from King’s College London with a focus on blockchain and distributed ledger technologies.
Anne Fletcher
Anne was appointed in October 2017 and is a member of the CMA’s specialist utility panel. Anne is a lawyer who has spent most of her career in regulated industries, including as Group General Counsel for BT Group PLC, Compliance Director for Royal Mail PLC and Interim Director of Regulatory Compliance for Visa Europe. She has extensive UK and international legal, compliance, risk and governance experience.
Robin Foster
Robin was appointed in February 2019. He is an economist and expert adviser in media policy, strategy and regulation. Until January 2022, he was a non-executive member of the Content Board at media regulator Ofcom and a member of the Advertising Advisory Committee at the Advertising Standards Authority. He was previously Strategy Partner at Ofcom, Strategy Director at the BBC, and a Director at National Economic Research Associates. He was also a Founder Director of consultants Communications Chambers, in which capacity he advised clients, including regulatory authorities in Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, on economic and regulatory matters.
Roland Green
Roland was appointed in July 2018. He is also a member of the CMA’s specialist communications and utility panels. From 2010 until March 2018, Roland acted as a legal and policy adviser to the CMA and the Competition Commission. Before that he advised a series of government departments on public and commercial matters as a member of the UK Government Legal Service, having qualified as a solicitor at Russell-Cooke in 1981, and worked in private practice for them and Linklaters until 1986.
Ashleye Gunn
Ashleye was appointed in April 2020. She is an independent consumer policy consultant specialising in competition, customer satisfaction and stakeholder engagement in regulated sectors. She is Customer Chair of the Independent Net Zero Advisory Council for Scottish Power Energy Networks and a member of Cadent’s Customer Challenge Group. Ashleye was previously Policy Programme Director at Which? and prior to this had an award-winning career as an advertising strategist.
Susan Hankey
Susan was appointed in October 2017 and is a member of the CMA’s specialist communications and utility panels. She was a partner in law firm CMS Cameron McKenna (now CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang) from 1998 to 2015, having spent 3 years in the 1990s in the Brussels office of predecessor firm Cameron Markby Hewitt. Susan led the firm’s competition practice in the UK and Central Europe for several years and was a member of the management team of the wider CMS international competition group.
Ulrike Hotopp
Ulrike was appointed in October 2017. She is Director of the Economic Consultancy LIVE Economics Ltd and holds an honorary professorship at the University of Kent. Prior to this she was Chief Economist at the economic consultancy Simetrica, Chief Economist and Director for Analysis at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and had a number of senior roles in the Government Economic Services including in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (now BEIS) and the Department for Energy and Climate Change (now BEIS).
Paul Hughes
Paul was appointed in February 2019. He is a former partner of international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, and has specialised in competition law and regulation for some 30 years.
Colleen Keck
Colleen was appointed in February 2019 and is also a member of the CMA’s specialist communications and utility panels. She is currently Deputy Chair of the Copyright Tribunal. Prior to that she was a partner at international law firm Allen & Overy LLP for over 20 years and more recently General Counsel and Company Secretary at Parkinson’s UK.
Juliet Lazarus
Juliet was appointed in September 2021. Prior to her appointment, Juliet was General Counsel and Director of Competition at the Office of Rail and Road. She joined ORR in 2004 to set up the legal team and become chief legal advisor to ORR’s board. She led ORR’s legal function and was a member of ORR’s senior team for 17 years. In 2013, she became Director of Competition and, in 2020, she was appointed ORR’s first Diversity and Inclusion Champion. Before working for ORR, Juliet was a solicitor in private practice in the competition and regulation department at Linklaters. She is also an Independent Member of the Provider Risk Committee at the Office for Students and a member of the Ofgem Enforcement Decision Panel.
Sheila McClelland
Sheila was appointed in October 2017 and is a member of the CMA’s specialist communications panel. She is currently Chairperson of the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland, a board member on a number of organisations focussed on community relations in Northern Ireland including the Community Relations Council and Cooperation Ireland. She is also a board member of Northern Ireland Cooperation Overseas which contracts public service expertise overseas normally via the European Commission or the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and is the Northern Ireland Committee of the Heritage Lottery Fund allocating grants for heritage projects. She is the founder and owner of the start-up Prissm Solutions. Sheila has also recently taken up an Interim Chief Executive position for a 2 year period in the Nursing and Midwifery Board in Ireland.
Frances McLeman
Frances was appointed in May 2020. She is also a member of the CMA’s Audit and Risk Assurance Committee. She is an experienced Corporate and Regulatory lawyer. A former Corporate Partner at City law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP (BLP) (now Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP), she was subsequently Head of Corporate and M&A Legal at Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) and then LBG’s Head of Ring Fencing Legal delivering a major regulatory reform programme. Her broad range of legal and regulatory experience includes financial services regulatory reform, mergers, acquisitions, divestments, flotations and public fund-raisings, restructurings, real estate investment funds, international projects, investigations, litigation and public sector procurement. Whilst a partner at BLP, she undertook executive level secondments to Tesco and two public sector bodies to deal with high profile events including plans for the London 2012 Olympics.
Cyrus Mehta
Cyrus was appointed in April 2020. He is a former Partner and Head of the EU and Competition team at law firm CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP. He has over 30 years’ experience in the field of UK and EU competition law, state aid, trade law and regulation in both London and Brussels.
Paul Muysert
Paul was appointed in April 2018. He is also a member of the CMA’s specialist communications, payment systems and utility panels. He was a senior consultant at Competition Economists Group (CEG) and was one of the founding partners of the firm. He has extensive experience in the economics of competition policy and regulation covering several jurisdictions, including the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa. He has provided expert economic evidence to the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal, UK High Court, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. He has also acted as a testifying expert in several International Arbitrations. Paul previously worked for Charles River Associates (CRA) as an economic consultant based in London. Previous regulatory appointments include positions in the competition group of the UK Office of Communications (Ofcom) and the New Zealand Commerce Commission.
Jeremy Newman
Jeremy was appointed in October 2017 and is a member of the CMA’s specialist newspaper and payment systems panels. He is a qualified chartered accountant and is the Chair/Non-Executive/Trustee of a range of public, private and not-for-profit sector organisations, including Chair of the Workforce Development Trust and a Non-Executive Director of Open Banking Ltd. He is a member of the Boards of Frontline and of World Jewish Relief. He has served as a Chair of Optionis Group; a non-executive member of the Boards of the Government Legal Department and the Crown Prosecution Service; as Chair of The Audit Commission and of the Single Source Regulations Office; and as a member of the Regulatory Decisions Committee of the FCA. He is an Honorary Visiting Professor at Bayes Business School.
Sir Kenneth Parker
Sir Kenneth was appointed in May 2020. Initially a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and a University Lecturer in Law, he was called to the bar in 1975, became a QC in 1992 and was joint head of Monckton Chambers from 2000-2006. His practice was primarily in competition and regulatory law, with cases in the UK, Brussels and Luxembourg. He was a Special Adviser to the House of Commons Select Committee for two competition enquiries. He was a Law Commissioner from 2006 until 2009, when he became a Judge of the High Court until 2015. He is currently a Judicial Commissioner under the IPA 2016, and a legal chair for the Financial Reporting Council.
Keith Richards
Keith was appointed in October 2017 and is a member of the CMA’s specialist communications panel. He has been qualified as a barrister for over 30 years and is an arbitrator and accredited mediator. He has been Chair of the Disabled Person Transport Advisory Committee since 2014, and Chair of the Renewable Energy Consumer Codes Non-Compliance panel since 2016. He set up the independent Consumer Panel at the Civil Aviation Authority and served as chair for 6 years until December 2017. In 2017, he was appointed a Member of the Financial Services Consumer Panel and a Board member for Transport Focus. He is also a Member of the Air Travel Insolvency Protection Advisory Committee and a Non-Executive Director at ECPAT UK. In 2022, Keith was awarded an OBE for services to Accessible Transport.
Stephen Rose
Stephen was appointed in April 2020. He was a partner in international law firm Eversheds Sutherland from 1997 to 2018 and prior to that worked for Slaughter and May in London and Brussels. Stephen was a senior partner in the Eversheds Sutherland, Competition, EU and Trade team for over 20 years.
Karthik Subramanya
Karthik was appointed in February 2019. He is currently Senior Advisor with Boston Consulting Group. He is also a Board member of Scottish Enterprise.
John Thanassoulis
John was appointed in October 2017. He is the Professor of Financial Economics at Warwick Business School (WBS), University Of Warwick. He is also the Associate Dean for the Bank of England Partnership and a CEPR Research Fellow. Previously John has served on the Board of Oxford Investment Partners (OXIP), was an Associate Professor at the University of Oxford, Department of Economics, and the Heyman-Moritz Fellow at Christ Church. John was educated at both Oxford and Cambridge, studying Mathematics followed by Economics. He is also Treasurer of the Blackfriars Overseas Aid Trust.
Mark Thatcher
Mark was appointed in April 2018. He is also a member of the CMA’s specialist communications and newspaper panels. He has published and taught in the UK and elsewhere on regulation and comparative public policy. He is currently Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics, where he was previously Professor of Comparative and International Politics, and professor at LUISS, Rome. His relevant research expertise includes policies for network industries in the UK, France, Germany and Italy; EU merger and regulatory policies, especially in telecommunications, energy and banking; the establishment and operation of general competition authorities and independent regulatory authorities for network industries in the UK, France, Germany and Italy.
David Thomas
David was appointed in October 2017 and is a member of the CMA’s specialist utility panel. He has an MA in Economics and is a chartered accountant. In September 2016 he retired as a UK partner in KPMG where he founded and led its global Economics & Regulation practice. Prior to joining KPMG in 2006, he was Director of Competition and Regulatory Finance at Ofcom and from 1984 to 2003 was with PricewaterhouseCoopers. He has 33 years of experience in the communications sector, the last 10 of which have focused on providing regulatory advice in numerous countries and acting as an independent expert in regulatory and commercial disputes on both quantum and liability. Since retiring from KPMG he continues to consult to a range of clients outside of the UK.
Claire Whyley
Claire Whyley was appointed in October 2017 and is a member of the CMA’s specialist utility panel. She is a professional researcher and policy analyst, focusing on consumer behaviour and decision-making, consumer protection and consumer-focused regulation. She specialises in user-led, evidence-based and impact-focused policy development, across a range of markets, with a particular interest in vulnerable and excluded consumers. She has delivered a number of research projects aiming to support organisations in putting consumers at the heart of their processes and decision-making. Claire holds a number of non-executive roles including the Civil Aviation Authority Consumer Panel, the Advertising Advisory Committee, the Finance and Leasing Association Lending Code Board, the H7 Consumer Challenge Panel; the Office of Rail and Road Consumer Expert Panel and the Board of the Money Advice Trust. She was previously Senior Research Fellow at the Personal Finance Research Centre, Head of Research and Policy at the Welsh Consumer Council and Deputy Director of Policy at the National Consumer Council.
Crispin Wright
Crispin was appointed in April 2020. From 2015-2018 he was Director General of the Takeover Panel. Prior to that he spent 33 years as an investment banker specialising in mergers and acquisitions at Rothschild, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Grenfell. He is a member of the Investment Committee of Merton College.