The Guernsey Competition & Regulatory Authority has announced the appointment of a new Chair and two new Non-Executive Directors to their Board.
John Curran (pictured) has been appointed as the new Chair. The two new Non-Executive Directors who have been appointed are George Ritchie and Hilary Jennings.
John Curran, who has been acting as Interim Chair, will take over permanently. Mr Curran is a former CEO of the GCRA, Director General of Guernsey’s Office of Utility Regulation (forerunner to the GCRA) and headed up the JCRA from 2010.
John Curran commented: “I am pleased to take up the role of chair of GCRA and am delighted to welcome the appointment of Hilary and George, who both bring a wealth of experience in regulation and competition law “.
George Ritchie has an extensive background in the Telecoms Industry having served for many years as BT’s Chief Counsel, Competition & Regulatory Law. From 2017 to 2022, as BT’s Commitments Assurance Director, he independently monitored BT’s commitments to make OpenReach an independent subsidiary. This combined with previous experience at the Head Office of the Legal Aid Board as a public and regulatory lawyer gives George over 12 years experience operating at a board level.
Hilary Jennings is a Member of the UK’s Regulatory Policy Committee and is a senior expert with over 20 years experience of advising Governments, Regulators and global business on competition, regulatory and market access policies in the UK, EU and emerging economy markets. She previously held senior roles at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the UK’s Office of Fair Trading (now the Competition and Markets Authority), as well as in the private sector.
The appointments fill the vacancies that arose from changes following Chris Bolt CB stepping down as Chair of the GCRA in September 2022 and Caroline Chan as a GCRA Board member in March 2023 at the end of her term.
John Curran said: “The GCRA is immensely grateful to both Chris and Caroline for their contribution to the board over the past 3 years. Chris played a key role in overseeing the transition to a separate authority and Caroline’s wide knowledge of the Guernsey environment have been hugely beneficial to the organisation and our role in protecting the interests of consumers.”
