http://nds.coi.gov.uk/environment/fullDetail.asp?ReleaseID=387861&NewsAreaID=2&N...

<<
Wednesday 17 December 2008 16:30
Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform  (National)

Ofcom Chairman-elect announced


Following a recruitment exercise conducted by the Department for Business and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Government has chosen Colette Bowe to replace Lord Currie as the next Chairman of Ofcom.

Bowe has significant Chairmanship and Board level director experience in business, finance, regulation and the Public Sector. She is currently Chairman of Council at Queen Mary College and a Board Member of Axa Framlington, Morgan Stanley Bank International, Electra Private Equity plc and London and Continental Railways. She was the founding Chairman of the Telecoms Ombudsman Council and the Ofcom Consumer Panel and is a former Executive Chairman of Fleming Fund Management and Chief Executive of the Personal Investment Authority. Bowe has also worked in central government and has been a Director at both the Independent Broadcasting Authority and the Securities and Investment Board.

Culture Secretary, Andy Burnham, said today: "I am delighted to announce that Colette Bowe is our choice for Chairman of Ofcom. Colette has the right mix of skills and experience for this role and I'm confident she also has the vision necessary to take Ofcom forward and tackle its future challenges."

Business Secretary, Peter Mandelson, said: "The communications industries have huge significance for our economy during these challenging times, and Colette's knowledge and experience across business, regulation and Whitehall will be invaluable at Ofcom in helping deliver greater choice and innovation across the sector."

The Government today invited the Business and CMS Select Committees to hold a public scrutiny hearing with Dr Bowe, in line with Parliamentary procedures for public appointment. The Committees will report back to the Government after the hearing.
>>

Note to editors:
Ms Bowe did precisely nothing to curb NTS rip-off when she was chair of the Ofcom Consumer Panel, and presumably such lethargy will continue.

I must beg to differ with the previous contributor. Ms Bowe, as a creature of Ofcom, is highly focussed on "consumerism", a principle which demands that the market be allowed to work in the alleged interests of all, with only "light-touch" intervention.

The work of the Consumer Panel, under Ms Bowe's chairmanship (a gender neutral term), has been to press for the maximum opportunity for people to consume the greatest possible amount of telecommuncations products and services. That is true consumerism.

This appointment does however cast a cloud over the absurd idea that the Ofcom Consumer Panel represented an independent view from that of Ofcom. This was said to be the basis for a decision not to absorb it into the National Consumer Council when this body was re-constituted earlier in the year. The NCC no longer has any responsibility for telecommunications.

I have always understood that the Ofcom Consumer Panel, or rather the "Communications Consumer Panel" as it is now known, provides a useful adjunct to Ofcom's management team, undertaking functions that are better performed by non-employees with some continuing external expertise on specific matters. To pretend that this alone gives it any true independence is absurd, its function and proven role is to support Ofcom. What is totally lacking is any capacity to undertake the role of a one-eyed advocate considering only the consumer interest, quite separate from the holistic market view that Ofcom is required to take.

Ms Bowe will doubtless see her new role as nothing more than a continutation of the work that she has been doing, rather than a complete switch into a position to which she was previously required to be in opposition. This would confirm that whilst the CCP is useful to Ofcom in the performance of its duties, it has no other value whatsoever.

Consumerism marches on.

It should not be forgotten that Ms Bowe's credentials as one to always do the bidding of her bosses in order to ensure the smooth progression of her own career path rather than to ever fight a stand of principle of any kind were well established at the time of the Westland DTI leak incident.

See www.guardian.co.uk/public/womeninpublic/story/0,,1605571,00.html

and

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article536...

Perhaps little surprise then that she cheerfully took the job of the boss of Ofcom Consumer Panel to enhance her own burgeoning directorship CV whilst doing absolutely nothing at all to help the rights of the citizen consumer, especially as that clearly pleased her real political masters at both Ofcom and in the government and thus ensured the smooth progress of her career path onwards to become Ofcom Chairman.

The Government today confirmed the appointment of Colette Bowe as Ofcom’s new Chairman. She will take up the position on 11 March 2009.   

The confirmed appointment follows a public scrutiny hearing by the Business and Culture, Media and Sport Select Committees which took place on 13 January 2009 in line with Parliamentary procedures for public appointments.

[Source: Ofcom email update]