Executive committees

Portrait of Stephen Braviner Roman.

Stephen Braviner Roman joined the FCA in February 2022 as the general counsel and executive director of legal. He oversees the legal division’s advice to the FCA across the full FCA portfolio on policy, rules, litigation, authorisations, supervision and enforcement, as well as the operational aspects of the FCA.

In June 2023, Stephen took responsibility for the corporate governance division, which supports the Board and Executive Committees, decision making committees and independent panels.

In April 2024, Stephen became the executive director responsible for risk and compliance oversight (R&CO), including complaints. R&CO is the second line of defence for the FCA, working with each of the divisions to enable the FCA to successfully manage risks of harm and help ensure it achieves its statutory objectives.

Stephen is the executive director responsible for the FCA’s office in Leeds. He also co-sponsors the Balance Network alongside Sarah Pritchard, which aims to challenge gender discrimination and positively promote gender equality. Stephen chairs the FCA Professions Board and is the head of the legal profession at the FCA.

Previously, Stephen was a Director General in the Government Legal Department (GLD) where he was responsible for, among other things, GLD’s legal advice on the UK’s departure from the European Union. He was also the GLD Board’s lead on Diversity & Inclusion.

Therese Chambers began her career in private practice in the City as a commercial litigator. She has spent 20 years in UK regulatory enforcement at the FCA and FSA, running investigations and conducting litigation in relation to some of the most high profile, complex and challenging regulatory enforcement cases. She is an acknowledged expert on UK financial services regulation and her experience and expertise covers the full range of the FCA’s jurisdiction. Therese is the joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, which brings together the FCA’s investigation, enforcement, intelligence and market oversight functions.

Additionally, Therese is the strategic lead for helping consumers, overseeing the specialist and cross-cutting policy departments within our supervision, policy and competition division. These teams identify emerging risks and help shape the FCA’s approach to policymaking and consumer strategy.

Previously, Therese has been the director for retail and regulatory investigations, responsible for the FCA’s retail investigations portfolio, which included anti-money laundering, pension scams and mis-selling investigations. She has also held the position of director of consumer investments, responsible for leading the FCA’s work to protect consumers from the harm caused by scams, poor investments and unsuitable investment advice. During that time, Therese was also responsible for the delivery of the FCA’s consumer investments strategy.

From July 2026, David Geale co-leads the FCA’s supervision, policy and competition (SPC) division alongside Simon Walls. As executive director of consumers, payments and competition, he is responsible for payments and digital assets, retail banking, motor finance, consumer finance and insurance, alongside his role as managing director of the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR). 

He is responsible for helping deliver the National Payments Vision and driving the FCA’s work on open banking and digital finance. David will also play a key role in the work to consolidate the PSR into the FCA. He is also responsible for supervising payments and cryptoasset firms.

David was previously director of retail banking at the FCA. He has worked at the FCA and its predecessor, the FSA, for more than 20 years, carrying out roles in policy and supervision. He was involved in leading and delivering policies such as the Retail Distribution Review and policy changes during the UK’s exit from the European Union.

More recently, David has led the FCA's work on developing a regime for cryptoassets as well as savings rates and reforming the mortgage market as set out in the FCA's letter to the Prime Minister on growth.

David had been the managing director of the PSR since June 2024. 

Sheree Howard, FCA executive director

As executive director, Sheree Howard oversees authorisations for firms and individuals applying to carry out regulated financial services activity, as well as the supervision hub which acts as first point of call into the FCA for consumers and firms.

Prior to this, Sheree was executive director of risk and compliance oversight (R&CO) from September 2019 to April 2024.

Sheree joined the FCA as a senior adviser in December 2017 after more than 25 years in financial services in the insurance and banking sectors. During this time, she held a range of senior roles and gained valuable experience of pricing, acquisitions, divestment, risk and compliance alongside the more traditional actuarial roles.

In 2023 Sheree was appointed as a Gambling Commissioner, and since April 2024, has been Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee.

Sheree has been a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries since 1994.

Portrait of Sarah Pritchard

Sarah has been the FCA’s deputy chief executive since June 2025. As part of this role, she deputises for Nikhil, has responsibility for the communications function, and chairs the FCA’s Executive Regulation and Policy Committee (ERPC) and the Executive Finance and Delivery Committee (EFDC). 

She joined the FCA in 2021 to establish the FCA’s newly combined supervision, policy, and competition (SPC) division as the executive director of markets, before taking on broader responsibility for consumers, competition and international portfolios.

Prior to joining the FCA in 2021, Sarah was the director of the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC), delivering UK system leadership on economic crime. Before then, she was general counsel/legal director for the National Crime Agency as well as leading the NCA's transformational people programme.

Sarah’s career has involved stints in investigative, operational and legal roles in a range of government departments and the private sector. She has led global financial crime compliance and reputational risk teams at HSBC and qualified as a commercial litigator with Dechert LLP. 

Nikhil was appointed chief executive of the FCA on 1 October 2020.

He began his career in HM Treasury before serving as Private Secretary to the Prime Minister between 2005 – 2008. Nikhil then became Head of the Financial Stability Unit, overseeing a number of the UK’s financial stability interventions before becoming HM Treasury’s Director of the Financial Services Group from 2009 – 2014. In that role, he also served as the UK representative to the EU Financial Services Committee.

Nikhil joined the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in 2014, and was appointed CEO in 2015.

Nikhil holds a BA in philosophy, politics and economics from the University of Oxford.

Jessica Rusu

Jessica was appointed as the FCA’s first CDIIO in 2021.

Jessica leads the FCA's data, technology, and innovation division, bringing together oversight of all FCA regulatory systems, including RegData, technology, including cloud, enterprise, and digital infrastructure, and Innovation Services, including the Regulatory and Digital Sandbox services.

The use of data, intelligence, information, and technology supports the FCA’s transformation to become a data regulator of the future.

Before joining the FCA, Jessica has 20 years of experience in analytics, risk management, and finance roles. Jessica’s previous roles included Chief Data Officer at Chetwood Financial, Senior Director of Finance & Analytics at eBay, and Head of Stress Testing and Analytics at GE Capital.

Johan Sekora

Johan joined the FCA from SEB, a major Swedish bank, where he was global head of financial crime prevention.

He has also served as chair of SAMLIT, the Swedish banking sector’s financial crime collaboration with the Swedish Police.

Prior to joining SEB, Johan spent 20 years with HSBC in the UK and internationally, most recently as global chief operating officer, regulatory compliance.

Johan holds a degree in Politics and Parliamentary Studies from Leeds University.

Siobhán was first appointed as the chief people officer in March 2021 and then as an executive director in July 2026. She works with the Executive Committee and Board leading the FCA’s people strategy; developing all our colleagues to ensure the FCA has the talent, skills and capabilities we require for the future.

Siobhán chairs our diversity, equity and inclusion programme board, implementing the FCA strategy to ensure we are a diverse and inclusive organisation.

Prior to joining the FCA, Siobhán was the Civilian Human Resources Director in the Ministry of Defence, and has held a range of senior HR roles across the private, public and third sectors. Her career has included being HR Director in Defra and the Department for Work and Pensions, as well as a range of business and HR roles in financial services for the first 20 years of her career.

Siobhán holds Masters' degrees in coaching and mentoring and organisational change, is a Chartered Companion of the CIPD and was awarded a CBE in 2020. She has volunteered extensively in her career including trustee and voluntary roles with the Mental Health Foundation, Crisis and the CIPD.

Steve Smart

Steve has had a career spanning 30 years working within government against a range of national security threats. For the majority of that time he was focused on the threats from terrorism, extremism and hostile states. More recently, as the Director of Intelligence at the National Crime Agency, he has helped lead the fight against Serious Organised Crime.

He has built and led proactive investigative and intelligence functions in a number of organisations, including 2 years in a major banking group. He has extensive experience of working with partners in the police, wider law enforcement and intelligence agencies both in the UK and overseas.

Steve was awarded an OBE in 2003.

Simon Walls, FCA executive director

Simon has held a range of roles in wholesale markets across 20 years at the FCA (previously FSA), including the supervision of buy-side, sell-side and infrastructure firms.

He was the head of wholesale markets department from 2016, before taking up the post of director of sell-side in 2022.

Simon has helped the FCA navigate LIBOR and Brexit, and played a large role in the FCA’s response to major market events, including the nickel market disruption and the liability-driven investment stress.

Prior to joining the FSA, Simon started his career on the graduate scheme at the Bank of England and holds qualifications in Economics and Law.