My career at the UK’s leading financial services regulator spans the last two decades during which financial services regulation and the economic landscape have undergone significant change. I have worked in a variety of regulatory, policy and compliance roles and am an accredited Data Privacy Professional with over 10 years’ practical experience in my field. I have excellent leadership and people management skills with a track record of building and developing diverse teams through change whilst meeting business needs. My role is high profile and the nature of my work demands a very high degree of confidentiality, tact and diplomacy.Reporting to the Chief Information Security Officer, my role involves regular liaison with senior colleagues, providing ad hoc advice and guidance on new data gathering initiatives, incident management and information disclosure. I oversee the other teams in the department which are responsible to execute their Data Protection (DP) related responsibilities appropriately when engaging with the wider organisation. I helped define the Data Privacy vision, strategy and framework for the FCA that supports key business objectives in alignment with the organisation’s strategy. This includes how to address the cultural and behavioural factors that must be considered to improve Data Privacy at the FCA. I also manage a team of 12 ensuring the FCA complies with DP and Freedom of Information (FoI) legislation, and other information based regulations. I am a member of the senior management team participating in cross-FCA Committees. In this capacity, I frequently draft and present papers to Executive Committees and, on occasion, to the FCA’s Board.

In addition to my core duties, I am responsible to successfully implement the GDPR at the FCA to ensure it is prepared and able to meet the requirements of the new legislation. As a member of the GDPR Project Board and supported by a project team, my role involves setting the strategic direction, risk appetite and roadmap to compliance. I also liaise closely with my counterparts at the Bank of England and HM Treasury and coordinate input with the Department for Culture, Media & Sport which is leading on domestic implementation, to ensure legislation is implemented in a way which will cause minimum disruption to the FCA and will continue to enable FCA regulated firms to discharge their regulatory obligations.

Responsible for a team of 12 to ensure the FCA complied with Data Protection and Freedom of Information legislation, and other information based regulations. This included setting the strategic direction of the team and wider Division in terms of purpose, design and subsequent implementation; and recruiting to that target operating model. Designed and implemented the framework within which the organisation approaches DP & FoI compliance; setting risk appetite and agreeing policies. My role also involved giving ad hoc advice and guidance on DP-related matters and on information disclosure; management of DP-related breaches. Designed and implemented a DP assurance & monitoring process, the mandatory DP and FoI training program for all staff and a quality assurance process to review the effectiveness of the FoI process. Achievements included very high compliance rates with FoI & DPA statutory deadlines and a very high success rate of decisions being found in FCA’s favour by the Information Commissioner and Information Tribunals.

Reporting to the Information Access Team (IAT) Manager, I led a team of seven associates to comply with Information Rights legislation.

Led the project to prepare the FSA to effectively implement FoI. The project had a budget of £250,000 and was organisation-wide (3000 staff); I was accountable to a Project Board made up of senior executives. I successfully delivered the project within budget, quality, and time.

Led a small team which provided a new type of service to consumers to take action and recover financial losses caused by inappropriate advice. My primary role was to review compliance checks (undertaken by FSCS on the FSA’s behalf) and liaise with consumers, FOS & FSCS, ex-Independent Financial Advisors, solicitors, regulated firms. During this period, I separately led a project team responsible for ensuring the Department was fully prepared to undertake its own review of FSAVC's sold by “departed” firms. I delivered two new systems including training and procedures for staff within a budget of £200,000.