FRC Advisory Panel

The Advisory Panel Members are subject matter specialists in the following areas:

  • Actuarial work
  • Audit
  • Audit committee experience
  • Accountancy
  • Competition policy
  • Culture
  • ESG and narrative reporting
  • Preparation of financial statements (listed / corporate and local authority / public benefit entities)
  • Senior financial management (CFOs / FDs)
  • Forensic accountancy
  • Information security
  • Insolvency practice
  • Institutional investment
  • Internal audit
  • Relevant areas of law
  • Public Policy / Government / Public Interest
  • Regulation
  • Risk management
  • Technical accountancy
  • Academia

Members of the Advisory Panel will be called on to provide expert advice across the breadth of the FRC’s activities. This could include:

  • Input to the development and maintenance of regulatory standards, codes and guidance
  • Providing expert advice in relation to the FRC’s work on corporate reporting, audit firm supervision, audit market supervision, audit quality review and oversight of professional bodies
  • Providing advice to the Enforcement Division on case matters
  • Providing advice on regulation and public interest
  • Providing advice on the emerging issues affecting the regulatory landscape

Panel Members

  • Mei Ashelford

    Member

    Mei has 20+ years of technical corporate reporting experience including six years as a standard setter at the Financial Reporting Council, focusing on UK accounting standards and narrative reporting. Mei currently leads the investor communications and reporting offer at Brunswick Group providing strategic advice to FTSE 350, AIM and large private companies on strategic, governance and sustainability reporting regulation and best practice.

    Mei also sits on the ICAEW's Corporate Reporting Faculty Board. Mei has a keen interest in the evolving regulatory landscape and future direction of corporate reporting and is often called upon to speak on this subject at external events and is a frequent contributor of articles for relevant industry publications.

  • Michael-John Albert

    Member

    Michael-John Albert is a partner at EY specialising in the delivery of audit and other services to the financial services sector. Michael-John has experience across the spectrum of financial services in the UK, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. His clients include listed and unlisted large UK and inbound banks, mortgage service providers, sovereign wealth funds and asset managers.

    As well as audit, Michael-John’s advisory experience includes delivery of outsourced internal audit functions, regulatory reviews and assisting clients with multinational expansion plans. Michael-John is the Audit Quality leader for the UK firm, overseeing the audit quality strategy and initiatives for both financial services and the wider UK practice. He was previously head of Risk and Compliance for the UK’s financial services assurance practice.

    Michael-John is a Trustee and Treasurer for Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity and Chairs the Finance, Audit, Risk and Investment subcommittee. He was previously a Trustee of the Deloitte South Africa Pension Fund and through his membership of various committees advised the South African Regulator and Government on the development of the governance and accounting frameworks for retirement funds.

  • James Baird

    Member

    James Baird has over 30 years of audit and advisory experience, working with listed, large private and PE-funded businesses in the UK and globally. An Audit Partner in Deloitte LLP from 1999 to 2017, he led the firm in Scotland and NI before taking on leadership of the Swiss Audit & Advisory business from 2010 to 2015. During that time, he was also a National Risk Partner for the UK and Swiss firms as well as Chairman of Deloitte AG, COO for Switzerland and a member of the Swiss Executive. He retired from the firm in 2017.

    James is now a listed company Non-Executive Director and Chair of Audit Committee. Having completed a PhD on audit partner decision-making, he is Professor of Practice at Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow. A member of the ICAEW, James chairs the ICAS Research Panel and is a member of the ICAS Policy Leadership Board. He is Chair of Trustees at RS Macdonald Charitable Trust and a Trustee of Rainforest Trust UK. A former member of the Auditor Panel of the Global Public Policy Committee and of the Stakeholder Insight Group, James has contributed to a number of FRC working groups.

  • Shalin Bhagwan

    Member

    Shalin Bhagwan is Chief Actuary and Interim Chief Financial Officer of the Pension Protection Fund. His career experience spans investments, insurance and pensions with a focus on the de-risking of defined benefit pension funds. Having started his career at a BPA insurer and large DC master trust in South Africa he then moved into investment advisory and management in the early 2000’s. His asset management experience includes the management of liability driven investment strategies for pension funds and Solvency 2 insurers across fixed income, derivatives as well as listed and private debt. He has managed these strategies for asset owners in the UK, USA and South Africa. He has also supported recent initiatives in the UK to bring about changes in UK pension scheme voting implementation. Prior to the PPF, he worked for DWS, Legal & General Investment Management, Mercer, Aon, FirstRand and Sanlam. Shalin is a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries and holds an Honours Degree in Statistics and Actuarial Science from the University of Cape Town.

  • Valerie du Preez

    Member

    Valerie is a senior actuary with 20 years of insurance experience including providing consultancy services within actuarial and finance transformation. She specialises in financial reporting and advises insurers and technology providers on the use of innovative technologies including AI and advanced data science techniques, that incorporates business domain experience in a risk-controlled way.

  • Simon Gleadhill

    Member

    Simon is Corporate Reporting and IFRS Technical Controller at Howden Joinery Group Plc. This role combines his specialisms in IFRS technical accounting and financial reporting with Annual Report production, ESG reporting, and reporting on strategy and the business model.

    Simon originally qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PwC, where he worked mainly with large consumer and industrial companies in London and Oman. After moving into industry and several years of IFRS implementation and preparing listed company accounts, he developed additional specialisms in ESG reporting and Strategic reporting. He now leads the team responsible for producing several award-winning Annual Reports and Sustainability Reports.

    He was a member of the Advisory Group to the FRC’s “

    Future of Corporate Reporting

    ” project and is a member of the Investor Relations Society, holding their Certificate in Investor Relations.

  • Daniel Godfrey

    Member

    Daniel is a member of the Independent Governance Committee for the Legal & General DC pension schemes looking after the interests of over 2.5 million members and £35 billion of their savings. He is a Visiting Fellow at the Global Systems Institute of Exeter University, which researches system-wide solutions that can help to build a sustainable future for people and planet. Since its launch in 2016, Daniel has been an NED at Moneybox, the UK’s fastest growing savings and investment platform for younger people with over 1 million customers. He is an adviser to ShareAction and the Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) Asset Owners Network and a Member of the Advisory Board of the IoD’s Centre for Corporate Governance. He has previously held CEO roles at City trade associations, including the Investment Association, the trade body for the UK’s £10 trillion asset management industry.

  • Roger Harrington

    Member

    Roger Harrington worked for BP plc from 2006 until 2018. Initially he led the company’s Group Accounting and Reporting team and from 2009 he held the position of Chief Accounting Officer. In this latter role he represented the company in discussions on accounting and reporting issues in the UK and internationally.

    Roger is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He trained and qualified whilst with Pricewaterhouse and has 20 years’ experience in audit and advisory, latterly with PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he became specialised in the Energy industry.

    Roger was educated at Keble college, Oxford University and holds a MA (Hons) in Engineering Science.

  • Rachael Sanders

    Member

    Rachael is Director of Finance (S151 Officer) at Herefordshire Council with responsibility for Finance, Commercial & Procurement, Fraud, Risk and Insurance Services across the Council. She is a Chartered Accountant (FCA) with over 20 years financial management and accountancy experience; including local government and public sector as well as private sector finance experience.

    As a former auditor, Rachael values the role of the auditor in promoting best practice and compliance and has a keen interest in the future of public audit and its ability to influence improvements in corporate and financial reporting and governance arrangements. Rachael acts as Accounts and Audit Advisor to the Society of County Treasurers (SCT), supporting member authorities with technical accounting issues and audit responses.

    Prior to working in local government, Rachael held roles at KPMG, the Audit Commission and Grant Thornton.

  • Jon Hayes

    Member

    Jon Hayes is a CIPFA member with over 30 years of professional experience. He trained with the Audit Commission and undertook roles across all of the Commission's responsibilities for local government and the NHS, including as a statutory appointed auditor. From 2012 to 2015 he was a member of the Commission's executive management team.

    Jon was the Chief Officer of Public Sector Audit Appointments Ltd from 2015 until the end of 2018. In that time the company secured a long-term role supporting local government bodies in the new local audit regime and delivered the transitional statutory audit functions it was established to complete.

    Jon is currently a member of the audit and risk committees of the General Medical Council, the General Council of the Bar, St John's Ambulance, the London Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime and the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner. He is also the company secretary of a heritage charity in a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

  • Dominic Lindley

    Member

    Dominic Lindley is an independent consultant specialising in financial services, consumer protection and conduct risk issues. He is a Member of the Financial Services Consumer Panel and Director of policy for New City Agenda, a financial services thinktank founded by David Davis MP, Lord McFall and Lord Sharkey. He is the author of the report - The Pensions Dashboard: How can we make sure it works for consumers and has co-authored reports into the culture of the UK's retail banks and financial regulators. Prior to becoming an independent consultant he was leader of the financial services policy team at Which? and an economist for the UK Parliament’s Treasury Select Committee. He led Which?'s work on with-profits funds and the regulatory framework concerning the reattribution of inherited estates in the funds. He worked on the Future of Banking Commission and led work which resulted in the banning of consultancy charges and deferred member penalties in workplace pensions. He is a trustee of the Which? pension scheme and has been a member of the European Banking Authority Stakeholder Group.

  • Colin McCarthy-Little

    Member

    Colin McCarthy-Little is currently the Head of Group Audit of International Airlines Group (IAG) leading the audit strategy and delivery across the Group. IAG is the parent company of British Airways, Iberia, Vueling, Aer Lingus, LEVEL, IAG Cargo, Avios and IAG GBS. Colin is also the Chair of the Audit and Compliance Committee of the oneworld Management Company and is a member of the UK Regional Committee of the Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand.

    Colin trained with KPMG Australia, where he worked in the assurance practice across a range of industries including Financial Services, Defence, Oil & Gas and Biotechnology. In 2008 he moved to KPMG London where he was a Senior Audit Manager on financial institutions including HSBC and ICICI Bank.

    Colin was a member of the FRC's Audit Quality Review Committee until December 2020.

  • William McMullan

    Member

    1 April 2024

    William is a Director in Moore Kingston Smith’s Corporate Client Services audit team, providing audit services to the firm’s portfolio of larger, more complex, and regulated entities. He trained and qualified with Grant Thornton, where he worked for nearly 16 years primarily auditing in the UK and Australia across a wide range of sectors including retail and professional services. Before joining Moore Kingston Smith, William was a Senior Audit Advisor in the FRC’s Enforcement Division. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and acts as a trustee and honorary treasurer for a small charity in the education sector. In addition to his audit experience, William was the financial controller for the London 2017 World Athletics Championships and World Para Athletics Championships.

  • Linda Phillips

    Member

    Linda Phillips is International Risk & Actuarial Director at Achmea. She joined Achmea group in 2006 and has since 2013 held various managerial roles at group providing oversight of the international business. She has more than 15 years of corporate governance experience and is currently a non-executive director and audit & risk committee chair at companies providing P&C and health insurance in Australia, Canada, Greece, Slovakia and Turkey.

    Linda is also a participant at the CRO Forum and a regular member of its working groups where she contributes to CRO Forum publications. She is passionate about ESG issues, in particular how insurers can get sustainable impact in scope 3 insurance-associated emissions and provides advice on PCAF measurement standards and Net-Zero Insurance Alliance target setting.

    Prior to moving to the Netherlands, she was Chief Actuary for a P&C insurer in the US. She started her career in London as a consulting actuary within the Lloyd’s market. She is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and the Dutch Koninklijk Actuarieel Genootschap and holds the Certificate in Corporate Governance from Insead.

  • Kern Roberts

    Member

    Kern Roberts is the Global Accounting Practice Lead at Chatham Financial, an advisory and technology firm focused on financial risk management. Kern specialises in financial instrument accounting and hedge accounting under IFRS 9, IAS 39, ASC 815 and FRS 102. He also advises on embedded derivatives, the fair value requirements under IFRS 13, and the disclosure and presentation of financial instruments. Kern sits on the European Accounting Working Group of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), the ISDA North America Accounting Group, and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) Corporate Reporting Faculty Board.

    Prior to joining Chatham, he worked for Barclays in their Technical Accounting Group, and has also held technical accounting and audit positions with Smith and Williamson and PwC.

    Kern is a fellow of the ICAEW and graduated from the University of Warwick with a First Class degree in Politics and Sociology.

  • Fiona Sheridan

    Member

    Fiona Sheridan is a Chartered Accountant and former Managing Partner with EY with a portfolio of Board and Committee roles including Board Trustee at The Children’s Trust, member of their Audit Committee & Remuneration Committee and Chair of the Finance, Fundraising & General Purpose Committee.

    She is a Member of the Audit, Risk, Assurance and Performance Committee at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and a Member of the Audit & Scrutiny Committee of The University of Oxford.

    As former Managing Partner of EY’s Risk Advisory Practice in UK & Ireland, Fiona’s client expertise focused on enterprise risk management, internal audit and internal control in FTSE 100/250 companies as well as supporting clients to understand the impact of their organisational culture on their current and desired risk appetite and attitude.

  • Steven Taylor

    Member

    1 January 2025

    Steven Taylor is an actuary and a Senior Partner at actuarial consultancy Lane, Clark and Peacock LLP. He has over 20 years’ experience working with UK and international private, listed and PE funded businesses in relation to their UK defined benefit pension schemes. This includes advising on scheme funding valuations, pensions accounting and in M&A and restructuring situations.

    Steven also advises trustees, sponsors, and employee representative groups in relation to new Collective Defined Contribution pension schemes as well as wider pensions options for future service. This has included working closely with Government, regulators and other industry groups on emerging legislation.

    He is Immediate Past Chair of the Association of Consulting Actuaries, having led the organisation between 2022 and 2024. In this role Steven worked widely across the industry on a broad range of technical pensions challenges, including speaking regularly to parliamentary groups and in other industry forums. Prior to working at LCP, Steven worked within actuarial teams at Big 4 accounting firms PWC, Deloitte and KPMG and qualified as an actuary in 2005.

  • Wendy Walford

    Member

    Wendy Walford is Head of Climate Risk for Legal & General, a UK based financial services provider. Legal and General is a global provider of retirement solutions to corporates and individuals, and our skills lie in asset management and origination, longevity risk and technological innovation.

    As Head of climate risk for the Group, Wendy supports the delivery of the group’s climate goals and commitments, with a specific responsibility for the development of the group wider risk management framework to support inclusion of the financial risks from climate change. Her role also spans the Group’s strategic response to Climate risk, the governance framework, and the  metrics and targets.

    Wendy brings significant experience of application of actuarial techniques in climate related issues, alongside over 15 years of post-qualified experience of working in life insurance. She is also a member of the IFoA sustainability Board, where she is co-lead for policy and regulation.

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