FRC's Senior Advisors

Role of the FRC's Senior Advisors
Senior Advisors

Role of the FRC's Senior Advisors

The Executive and the Board Committees are assisted by individual Senior Advisors who are subject matter experts. The Senior Advisors work with the Executive in either the Enforcement, Supervision or Regulatory Standards divisions. They provide advice, feedback and mentoring and act as sounding boards for ongoing issues and topics. Senior Advisors in the Regulatory Standards Division also attend the Regulatory Standards & Codes Committee as non-voting members.

Senior Advisors

Rosemary Beaver

Regulatory Standards Division (Regulatory Standards & Codes Committee)

Rosemary is former Head of International Regulatory Affairs for the Lloyd's insurance market, where she was responsible for Lloyd's International trading rights in over 75 countries and for leading Lloyd's international compliance and regulatory relationships. She is currently Vice President and Council Member of the Insurance Institute of London and Junior Warden and Court Assistant to the Worshipful Company of Insurers. She has served as a member of the Board and Council of the Chartered Insurance Institute, is a member of the Independent Woman in Insurance Network committee and an Associate of the Girls' Day School Trust. Rosemary has a Master's degree in Classics from Cambridge University and is a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute.

Paul Cox

Regulatory Standards Division (Regulatory Standards & Codes Committee)

Prior to becoming Senior Lecturer of Finance at University of Birmingham Paul was an equity fund manager at Kleinwort Benson Investors. Paul is an Investment adviser at The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) and since 2007 has provided pension and investment expertise to the Department for Work and Pensions, Personal Accounts Delivery Authority, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and Ministry of Justice. Paul is an academic member on the Occupational Pension Fund Stakeholder Group of the European Insurance and Occupational Pension Fund Authority (EIOPA). In 2017 Paul was engaged by the European Commission to support countries become future European Union member states by drafting amendments to existing national legislation on voluntary pension funds, capital market laws, and cross-border pension activity in order to harmonise with EU law. This included introducing new methods and methodologies to support the national supervisor carry out its work. Paul has a PhD in finance.

Richard Lawrence

Regulatory Standards Division (Regulatory Standards & Codes Committee)

Richard is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, having qualified with PricewaterhouseCoopers. He is currently the Head of Accounting & Valuation Policy at The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (RBS), a role he has held since 2017. He has held a number of senior finance roles within RBS, and before that ABN AMRO NV, going back to 2003. Richard sits on a number of industry-focused committees at UK Finance and the ICAEW.

John Hitchins

Supervision Division (Supervision Committee)

John retired from PwC in 2014 after 26 years as a partner. Throughout his PwC career, John specialised in bank auditing and advisory services and was PwC’s banking industry leader from 2001-10. From 2010 to his retirement, he led the PwC network’s global IFRS technical group. He is currently Chair of the Audit Committee at Aldermore Group PLC. John served as a member of the FCA Practitioner and Markets Practitioner Panels from 2012-14. He has served as Chairman of the Institute’ of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales’ Banking Committee and as a Board member of the Institute’s Financial Services Faculty and a member of the Institute’s Business Law Committee.

Andrew Vials

Supervision Division (Supervision Committee)

Andrew was a partner at KPMG for 28 years. He was lead audit partner for clients in both the commercial and financial services sectors. From 2004 he headed the firm's Department for Professional Practice providing advice on a wide range of financial and corporate reporting issues. During that time, he was a member of the IASB's IFRS Interpretations Committee.

In 2014 then Andrew joined Grant Thornton as Head of National Assurance Services, the firm's centre of excellence for corporate reporting and audit matters, leaving in 2017.

Andrew was previously a member of the Corporate Reporting Review Committee.

Anne Whitaker

Supervision and Enforcement Divisions (Conduct and Supervision Committees))

Anne Whitaker is a former EY Audit partner with a portfolio of non-Executive and charity roles, including independent NED and Audit Committee Chair at Markel International Insurance Company Ltd and Chair of the Risk and Audit Committee at Hitachi Capital (UK) plc. As the former Head of Audit and Risk Partner for EY’s UK Financial Services Practice, Anne specialised in asset management audits, including funds and investment trusts as well as other financial services. Some of Anne’s previous non-Executive roles include NED and Audit Committee Chair at Barts Health NHS Trust and Chair of the Audit and Risk Assessment Committee of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA). She has also previously volunteered as an advisor for MicroVentures (a microfinance charity operating in Malawi).

Anne was previously Chair of the Audit Quality Review Committee and a member of the Conduct and Supervision Committees until March 2022.

Sean Collins

Enforcement Division (Conduct Committee)

Sean joined Peat, Marwick Mitchell & Co (now KPMG) in 1972 beginning a career which would encompass audit, taxation, financial investigations and consulting.

He became a partner on his transfer to the Malaysian practice in 1985, where he led the financial services practice as well as the technical advisory department. On his return to London, he assumed responsibility for the firm's leasing practice and then the telecommunications and media practice, for which he was global leader for more than 10 years. After a second period in Asia, directing the Asia-Pacific practice from 2009 to 2012 from Singapore, he retired from KPMG. For over three years he was the Senior Independent Director and Audit Committee Chairman of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels plc. He is currently the Audit Committee Chairman for Jersey Telecom, Crown Representative at the Cabinet Office, a Member of Council of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs and Deputy Chairman for Arthritis Research UK.

Sean was previously a member of the Case Management Committee and a member of the Conduct and Supervision Committees until March 2022.

Richard Murray

Enforcement Division (Conduct Committee)

Richard is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and was an Audit and Assurance partner for 27 years in the London office of Ernst & Young (now EY) until 2011. He specialised principally in the audit of multinationals, both UK and US Listed, as well as many domestic UK Listed companies. In addition, he has undertaken both Investigative and Corporate Advisory assignments.

At EY, Richard acted for a wide range of commercial and industrial enterprises mainly within the Extractive (Mining and Oil & Gas), Leisure (Tourism and Airlines) and Hospitality (Hotels, Pubs and Restaurants) sectors.

Since his retirement from EY, Richard served for 3 years as a Non Executive Director and Audit Committee Chairman of JKX Oil & Gas Plc.