01/14    10 January 2014

The OFT today announced that its Chief Executive, Clive Maxwell, is leaving to take up a new role at the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC).
Clive will leave the OFT on 23 February to join DECC as Director-General, Consumers and Households, where he will lead work on energy efficiency and other energy reforms.

He will be succeeded as OFT Chief Executive by current Executive Director, Vivienne Dews, who will lead the organisation through the transition into its successor organisation, the Competition and Markets Authority and the transfer of credit regulation to the Financial Conduct Authority.

In another move, the OFT's other Executive Director, Cavendish Elithorn, will be leaving next month to join the Department for Transport as Director, Network Rail Sponsorship.

Clive said: 'It has been a privilege over the last four years to work at and lead the OFT, in a period which has seen the largest changes in its 40 year history, including the transfer of credit regulation, changes to responsibilities for consumer protection and the setting up of its successor, the Competition and Markets Authority.

'Throughout this time I have been very proud of the manner in which OFT staff have continued to deliver results that benefit both consumers and the economy, whilst also preparing the ground for new regimes.

'I have decided that now is the right time to make the next move in my career and I am looking forward to taking up the challenge of my new role at DECC.'

OFT Chairman, Philip Collins said: 'Clive Maxwell has led the OFT with courage and clear direction in tackling issues that matter to consumers and economic growth, during a period of major transition for the organisation.

'These have ranged from tackling payday lenders and signing up supermarkets to clear pricing principles, to improving gym contract terms and investigating 'fremium' childrens apps and the market for motor insurance. Alongside this, he has overseen competition investigations in major sectors such as pharmaceutical, sporting goods and travel, and has driven an even stronger enforcement culture within the organisation that will carry forward into its successor bodies.

'In much of this work Clive has been ably supported by Cavendish Elithorn, who has led the Goods and Consumer group with distinction, achieving major wins for consumers such as the scrapping of hidden airline payment surcharges. Earlier in his wide-ranging OFT career Cavendish drove groundbreaking work on bank current accounts, which led to consumer savings of up to £928 million a year from the fall in un-authorised overdraft charges between 2007 and 2011, and in his recent Executive Director role he has overseen the entire Enforcement and Mergers portfolio.

'I wish them both well in their new careers and am reassured that the OFT is to be led through its final stages of transition in the experienced and capable hands of Vivienne Dews.'

Clive and Cavendish will both start in their new roles, and Vivienne will take over as OFT Chief Executive, on Monday 24 February.

NOTES

  1. A copy of Clive Maxwell's letter to the Secretary of State can be found here.
  2. The OFT Chief Executive is appointed by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills after consulting the OFT Chairman. 
  3.  OFT General Counsel Frances Barr and Senior Directors Ann Pope and David Fisher will join the OFT Executive Committee from 1 February.
  4. Clive Maxwell's full biography can be found here.
  5. Vivienne Dew's full biography can be found here.
  6. Cavendish Elithorn's full biography can be found here.
  7.  In April 2014, the Competition and Markets Authority (the CMA) will become the UK's lead competition and consumer body. The CMA will bring together the existing competition and certain consumer protection functions of the Office of Fair Trading and the responsibilities of the Competition Commission, as amended by the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013.  The CMA, which is a non-Ministerial government department, was established on 1 October 2013 and will be taking on responsibility for cases, market studies and other work from 1 April. Click on the CMA's for more information.
  8. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will take over regulation of consumer credit from the OFT on 1 April 2014. The transfer of regulation is part of the Government's programme of regulatory changes for financial services and brings conduct of business regulation under a single financial services regulator.FCA's website for more information.
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