The Board

Our Chairman Janet Finch has published extensively on family relationships, her research interests focusing especially on inter-generational family relationships. In September 1995, Janet was appointed Vice-Chancellor at Keele University, having previously been a Pro-Vice-Chancellor at Lancaster University. At Keele, she oversaw substantial alterations of the University and the increasing development of a private Science and Business Park.

She retired from her position in 2010, having served fifteen years as Keele's Vice-Chancellor. She returned the following year to be made a Doctor of Letters.

Janet is one of four main panel chairs in the Research Excellence Framework, independent co-chair of the Council for Science and Technology, a non-executive director of the Identity and Passport Service and the chair of the Council of Ombudsman Service Ltd.

Janet was named a CBE in the 1999 New Year's Honours List for services to social science, and a DBE in the 2008 Birthday Honours List, for services to social science and higher education.

From 2002 to 2007, Lewis was the Crown appointed Scottish Public Services Deputy Ombudsman and a member of the Executive Board at the Scottish Public Service Ombudsman.

He is a priest in the Scottish Episcopal Church and has served congregations in Motherwell, Shetland and Dumfries and was a canon of St Andrew's Cathedral Aberdeen.

Lewis was a member of the Shetland Islands Council from 1990-1999 and Convener/Leader from 1994-1999. He is a former Vice-President of COSLA (the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) and represented the UK on the European Committee of the Regions. He was on the Executive of the Constitutional Convention and a member of the Highlands and Islands Convention.

Lewis was Chair of the Management Committee of Shetland College, served on the UHI Steering Group, was a Director of UHI Ltd and has been a board member or trustee for a number of organisations including Scottish Homes and Dumfries and Galloway College. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Lewis joined Ombudsman Services as Chief Ombudsman and Chief Executive in 2009.

Alex joined Nominet in January 2011 as Director of Legal and Policy. Prior to joining Nominet, Alex was International Director at Ofcom, responsible for Ofcom’s engagement with key international institutions and for negotiations within the European Union. He joined Ofcom in January 2004 and was Project Director for the Strategic Review of Telecommunications completed by Ofcom in 2005.

Alex’s early career was spent in the public sector. In 1991 Alex joined the DTI team implementing the Duopoly Review, and then spent three years at Oftel in the mid-1990s working on strategic market-opening projects. Alex also worked on competition policy issues at the DTI, and on European policy issues at the Cabinet Office. Before joining Ofcom, Alex spent six years with cable company NTL, latterly as Director of Regulatory Affairs

Richard is a qualified accountant with a broad range of commercial and public sector experience. He was formerly Finance Director with North & Mid Cheshire TEC

Ombudsman Services Board member more details to follow

Ombudsman Services Board member more details to follow

Clive studied Chemistry at Cambridge University and worked in Africa before spending 8 years in the Venture Capital industry.

On joining the utility sector 18 years ago Clive has held a range of executive director roles in electricity distribution, water and wastewater utilities.

Clive has recently published a book on ‘Strategic Asset Management’ which illustrates how the boards and front line staff of leading utilities across the world have overcome the practical challenges we all face to achieve high levels of performance. He is a council member of the Institute of Asset Management, Chairman of the Investment Forum of the UK’s Energy Innovation Centre, a non-executive Director of The Ombudsman Service Limited and a Director of his own consultancy company.

Steven Gould joined RICS in 2000 with a remit to modernise its regulatory functions. He has successfully changed RICS’ approach to regulation, introducing a model that is government approved, flexible enough to meet new legislative requirements and focuses on firms as well as individuals. He has delivered independent consumer redress via Ombudsman Services (Property), that meets legal requirements and is extremely cost effective for member firms. Steven has also been responsible for extending RICS’ regulatory scope internationally – in Hong Kong and Europe - and is looking to extend this to other countries and regions in parallel with RICS growth worldwide. He has also led RICS staff in looking at how best to regulate specialist functions through registration and accreditation.

Steven provides advice on general professional regulation matters to a number of other bodies and has held appointments on to their Conduct Committees as well as having sat on the standards committee of his local authority. Prior to joining RICS he worked in Whitehall and at Which? magazine. He says that public protection is always at the heart of his work.

Chris Kenny is the inaugural Chief Executive of the Legal Services Board. His early career was in the Department of Health and the Treasury, where he held a variety of policy and management posts including Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State.

As Oftel's Director of Regulatory Policy and then Director of Compliance between 2000 and 2003, he worked on access and competition issues and worked with industry and consumer bodies to establish the Telecoms Ombudsman.

Most recently, as Director of Life and Pensions for the Association of British Insurers, he led the industry's input into the work of the Pensions Commission and the Government's response to it and worked with Lord Hunt of Wirral on the independent review of the Financial Ombudsman Service. Chris has also held non-executive posts in the NHS and third sector.

Julie is a Chartered Accountant who trained in practice and has spent most of her career in senior finance and commercial roles in industry. She joined the board of what is now Ombudsman Services in 2005 and has seen the organisation grow from purely a Telecommunications based service to a multi-sector scheme.

Julie works for a private family trust company and is Vice-Chair of The Chorley and District Building Society. She brings experience of finance and audit, governance and working in regulated industries.

Until her retirement from the Board in February 2012 Julie is the Chair of The Audit and Risk Committee and a member of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee.

Walter was the founding Chief Ombudsman at the Financial Ombudsman Service for ten years, and before that he was the Insurance Ombudsman. He has pursued a varied career in legal institutions since he first qualified as a solicitor. He headed the first UK’s public community law centre, worked as an academic law teacher, then as a legal journalist before moving to head the Law Society’s public affairs department. He has served on a number of official law reform bodies, and is a member of the executive committee of JUSTICE. He served on the executive committee of the British and Irish Ombudsman Association and was the association’s chairman for three years. He founded and chaired the International Network of Financial Ombudsman schemes. He is the Service Complaint Reviewer for the Legal Ombudsman, Regulation Independent Reviewer at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and chairman of the trustees of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. He was awarded the CBE in 2007.