Race to chair CMA up to six candidates
The battle to become the next chairman of the Competition and Markets Authority stands at six candidates, Financial news can reveal.
Thirty-two candidates threw in their hats to take a leadership role with the competition watchdog, according to a request from the Freedom of Information Act of FN†
Thirty-one applications were forwarded to a jury after one withdrew, the CMA confirmed.
Six are now shortlisted, the FOI request revealed.
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The applicants included 23 men and just eight women, a gender disproportionate distribution as other valued jobs in regulatory and public policy.
Men outbid women by four to one to lead the government’s Brexit unit, for example, FN revealed last November.
Only two of the 23 people who applied to take over Mark Carney as Governor of the Bank of England in 2020 were women, while only three of the 11 candidates who competed for the Chair of the Financial Conduct Authority in 2018 were women. .
A search for the £106,000, two-day job to chair the CMA was launched in December and applications closed in January. The shortlist was made in February, for the last interviews last month.
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An announcement about the victor is to be made next month. One name in the frame, according to reports from heaven news, is former Phoenix Group CEO, Clive Bannister.
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The CMA presidency was left vacant when Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie, known for his high-profile work as head of Parliament’s Treasury Committee, resigned in June 2020 after allegedly arguing with Andrea Coscelli, the general manager of the CMA. supervisor.
Tyrie was two years into a five-year term, and his departure left an interim chairman to take charge.
Coscelli himself will step down in July as the leadership of the CMA enters a pivotal phase in the organization’s history.
The Financial times reported that a number of names are currently under discussion for the CEO position, including Sarah Cardell, currently the watchdog’s most senior attorney, Sonya Branch, general counsel at the Bank of England, and global antitrust partner at Linklaters Nicole Kar.
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The CMA has played a key role in reviewing mega mergers that have shaped the city, including the $44 billion acquisition of IHS Markit by S&P Global.
Its task will increase, however – it was recently tasked with taking over open banking oversight, and has also expanded a large-scale investigation into what it suspects is anticompetitive practices in the financial services sector.
To contact the author of this story with feedback or news, email Justin Cash