The banker who bought Northern Rock and turned Virgin Money into a high-street challenger is the government’s choice to run the Financial Reporting Council, the watchdog that polices the auditors and accountants every UK business depends on.
Business Secretary Peter Kyle has named Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia DBE CVO as his preferred candidate to chair the FRC, succeeding Sir Jan du Plessis when he steps down on 30 September.
For business owners, the appointment matters more than the acronym suggests. The FRC sets the standards behind company accounts and audits, the numbers on which lenders, investors and trading partners decide whether to back a business. It has shown its teeth in recent years, imposing a record £48 million in fines on audit firms over failures at Carillion and London Capital & Finance.
Dame Jayne-Anne arrives with a CV that spans both sides of the regulatory fence. A chartered accountant by training, she led Virgin Money from 2007 to 2018, steering the acquisition of Northern Rock and the listing of the combined business. Since then she has been a founder and dealmaker in fintech, giving her rare first-hand experience of what regulation feels like from the smaller end of the market.
She currently chairs Moneyfarm, OVO and Shakespeare’s Globe, serves as Lead NED at HMRC and Senior Independent Director at the Tate, sits on the boards of PRA Group and Innovo Group, and advises SumUp. She also spent five years as the government’s Women in Finance Champion, following her review that led to the Women in Finance Charter, now signed by more than 400 firms.
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