Executive Committee

Role of the Executive Committee

The Executive Committee manages the day to day operations of the FRC, including resources, policies and programmes.

Executive Committee Members

• 

  Richard Moriarty

  CEO

  Appointed 2 October 2023.

  Richard has over 25 years of board level experience across a range of regulated sectors. Prior to joining the FRC, he was CEO of the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority and before that the CEO of the Legal Services Board, which oversees the regulation of the legal professions. Earlier in his career he held senior roles in the regulation of social housing, communications and energy. He has also held roles in the private sector such as being a director with a water company and as a partner for a consultancy. In a non-executive capacity, he was deputy Chair of the Social Housing Regulator, responsible for the governance and financial viability of social landlords. Outside the FRC, Richard is Chair of a Housing Association.

• 

  Sarah Rapson

  Executive Director, Supervision

  Sarah Rapson leads the FRC’s work to enhance audit quality, through monitoring of firms; supervisory oversight of the Recognised Professional Bodies; and promoting improvement in corporate reporting. She chairs the Liaison Committee for Local Audit.

  From 2016 to 2021, Sarah was Director of Authorisations at the Financial Conduct Authority. From 2005 to 2016, she held various senior positions at the Home Office, including Board Member, Director General of UK Visas and Immigration and Chief Executive of the Identity and Passport Service (now HM Passport Office).

  She is currently the Senior Independent Director of North Middlesex University Hospital Trust and a Non-Executive Director of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. Before joining the Civil Service, Sarah’s career had been in retail financial services.

• 

  Elizabeth Barrett

  Executive Counsel and Executive Director, Enforcement

  Elizabeth Barrett became FRC Executive Counsel and Director of Enforcement on 1 August 2018. She is responsible for leading the FRC’s Enforcement Division and for decisions in relation to investigations and enforcement involving auditors, accountants and actuaries. Following a period as Vice Chair, in April 2022 Elizabeth became the Chair of the Enforcement Section of the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators.

  Elizabeth spent 30 years at Slaughter and May, including 27 years as a partner handling a broad range of complex and high-profile proceedings and contentious regulatory matters in the corporate and financing sectors. She was the Head of the firm’s Dispute Resolution Department between 2004 and 2008 and advised HM Treasury on a number of high-profile proceedings throughout the financial crisis and after, including the interventions in Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, as well as the administration of the Icelandic banks.

• 

  Mark Babington

  Executive Director, Regulatory Standards

  Mark Babington is the Executive Director of Regulatory Standards at the Financial Reporting Council. He leads the division responsible for the FRC technical and public policy work covering audit, corporate reporting, corporate governance and stewardship, actuarial and the FRC Lab.  Prior to joining ExCo, Mark led the FRC’s UK Audit Policy programme, measures to support greater competition in the UK audit market and work to support the reform of international standard setting for auditors, by global regulatory authorities.  Before he joined the FRC, Mark had a twenty-year career in audit and was a Director at the UK National Audit Office.

  Mark is an Independent Governor, Board Member and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, which is the UK public body dedicated to supporting democracy around the world. He is also a member of the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants, which sets the global Code of Ethics for the accountancy profession, and chairs IESBA’s Sustainability Task Force.

• 

  Alex Kuczynski

  Executive Director of Corporate Services and General Counsel

  Alex Kuczynski is the Executive Director of Corporate Services and General Counsel.  The division comprises the General Counsel’s Team, Finance (including risk, procurement, and facilities), Human Resources, Information Technology, and Economics, Strategy & Analytics.

  Alex joined FRC in September 2020, prior to which he was the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, and an executive board director, at the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.  As a lawyer, Alex was firstly head of legal at FSCS, but in various roles over 20 years worked on a wide range of financial services issues, particularly those with actual or potential consumer detriment, across investment business, insurance and banking, and often collaborating closing with government, regulators and industry stakeholders.

• 

  Miranda Craig

  Director of Strategy & Change

  Miranda is a Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute with 17 years’ experience across professional services, large private and listed companies, having qualified whilst at Ernst & Young. She has also held senior secretariat roles at Sage Group plc, ARM, R&Q and EDF Energy. Miranda spent 2019 seconded to BEIS leading on the Independent Review into the Quality and Effectiveness of Audit, supporting Sir Donald Brydon’s comprehensive review of audit; its purpose, user needs and future direction. She joined the FRC in March 2020 as Director of Strategy & Change, initially with responsibility for delivering the transformation programme, and now the FRC’s wider change agenda including as SRO for is locations programme.

• 

  Kate O'Neill

  Director of Stakeholder Engagement & Corporate Affairs

  Kate joined the FRC as the Director of Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Affairs in May 2020.

  Previously she was the Head of Corporate Development at Jupiter Asset Management where she was responsible for corporate strategy, investor relations and communications. Kate was the Managing Director of Investor Relations at Lloyds Banking Group during the financial crisis before becoming a Partner at Brunswick and then at Maitland advising global clients on capital markets and communications issues.

  After qualifying as a lawyer, Kate spent most of her career in the financial services sector in the UK, Europe and Australasia in senior leadership roles in distribution and alternative assets at AMP Asset Management, Henderson Global Investors and RBS Asset Management.