Christine Farnish, the Consumer Futures chair has been appointed by Ofwat as a non-executive director.
The appointment of Farnish will provide the board with consumer expertise as it struggles to keep water bills down through it’s price review process.
Christine Farnish will join the board in January. She is currently a commissioner of the Civil Service and chair of Consumer Futures until it transfers it’s remaining work to the Citizens Advice service in March 2014. She has also held positions as managing director at Barclays, chief executive at the National Association of Pension Funds and consumer director at the FSA and OFTEL.
Cathryn Ross, chief executive at Ofwat took up her post in October and appointed three directors which completes the new executive team at the board.
Sonia Brown was promoted in the summer to chief regulation officer, with the industry regulator currently recruiting a general counsel.
Jonson Cox, Ofwat’s chairman, said: “Customers, the industry and investors have told us that they rely on a strong, independent and robust regulator. All these appointments, executive and non-executive, together with those earlier in the year, play a vital role in rebuilding Ofwat’s capability.
“Christine has an impressive range of public and private sector experience. In particular, her consumer expertise will be invaluable.”