Executive Committee Members

In December 2008, Stephen was appointed as a member of the Financial Crisis Advisory Group (FCAG), the high-level advisory group set up by the International Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Board to consider financial reporting issues arising from the global financial crisis.

Stephen was Director General, Fair Markets Group at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), where he was responsible for the development of the framework within which business operates, including the competition and consumer framework, employment relations, company law, women and equality issues, and also trade and European issues. He held this position from January 2002. Prior to this, from 1998 until Spring 2002, he held other positions within the DTI, including Director of Employment Relations, and Consumer Affairs.

From 1994 to 1998 he was a director of the DTI’s Competitiveness Unit, a central policy team reporting directly to the Secretary of State. From 1990 to 1994 he left the UK civil service to work for the Hong Kong Government as a member of the Governor’s Central Policy Unit. Stephen was Vice President and Chair of the Board of the Institute for Employment Studies, the UK's leading employment and human resources experts, from October 2007 to 2011.

Stephen studied history and economics at Oxford University and joined the Department of Energy in 1978 where he held a number of posts, principally on nuclear issues and as Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Energy.

Elizabeth Barrett spent 30 years at Slaughter and May, including 27 years as a partner and was the firm’s Head of its Dispute Resolution Group between 2004 and 2008. Mrs Barrett 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.

He holds a degree in Accountancy and Financial Analysis from Warwick University, qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG in 1985 and was a partner from 1995 until he left the firm in 1999. In addition to being responsible for the audits of many major public interest entities he managed one of KPMG’s significant consulting businesses and was on their UK Consulting management committee.

Following KPMG, and prior to joining the Financial Reporting Council in 2004, Paul was a main board director of a UK publicly quoted company specialising in helping multi-national companies improve their operational efficiency and the effectiveness of their finance functions.

Previously she was an Associate at Beachcroft Wansbroughs (now DAC Beachcrofts) in the Public Law Department where she acted for a number of regulators across different sectors prosecuting in disciplinary cases, acting as legal assessor and giving advice on a wide range of regulatory issues. Prior to this, both at Beachcroft Wansbroughs and at Le Brasseurs, Anne acted in relation to disciplinary cases and civil and criminal actions as well as providing general advice in relation to the provision of healthcare services.

Anne studied law at Liverpool University and following completion of Law Society Finals at the College of Law, Guildford, trained and qualified at Le Brasseurs.

Mike also spent time at the NAO in a central policy role, leading the development of the NAO’s audit role within local government, and he also represented the NAO in various international fora.  Mike is a past Chair of the ICAEW’s Public Sector Audit Committee.

Tracy was a Senior Civil Servant and one of the first to be selected for the Cabinet Office’s new High Potential Development Secondment Programme (HPSP), through which she was loaned out to the Co-operative Group to work on the Co-operative Bank recapitalisation project, stabilising the Bank without recourse to taxpayer funding.  After the Bank crisis was over, she stayed on to establish the new role of Director of Policy for the wider Co-operative Group, which included working with Lord Myners on a major review of the Group’s corporate governance and then implementing a major Board restructure with the new Group Secretary. 
 
Tracy joined the Civil Service  straight from university, into the then DTI, and has held Director roles in the Departments for Communities and Local Government (CLG), Business Innovation and Skills  (BIS) and Energy and Climate Change (DECC).   She has also served on the Boards of several Non-Departmental Public Bodies, such as the Energy Saving Trust and the Equal Opportunities Commission.
 
Outside of Whitehall, Tracy has spent time in Brussels as a UK representative on equality and diversity policy and worked for P&G in Paris in the late 1990s whilst on a Career Break from the Civil Service.  She is a member of the Government’s Major Project Leadership Academy and completed the Oxford Business School Masters Programme in 2013.