How competition drives the economy

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We are delighted that Dr Philip Marsden and Alan Giles will be our guest speakers on Tuesday 30 April, discussing how the UK competition authorities balance consumer interests against business’ drive to grow. The meeting will be chaired by Julie Bon, Deputy Chief Economic Adviser at the UK Competition Markets Authority.

 Alan Giles is Chairman of The Remuneration Consultants Group and Senior Independent Director of Murray Income Trust plc. He is a member of the Advisory  Group for Fingleton, a consultancy offering strategic regulatory advice. Until 2019 he was a non-executive director of The Competition & Markets Authority until 2019, having been appointed to the board of the Office of Fair Trading in 2007. Alan’s background was in the retail sector, having been Chairman of Fat Face from 2006 until 2013. Earlier in his career he held senior executive roles at Waterstones, WH Smith Group and Boots. He formed HMV Group as Chief Executive in 1998 as a leveraged buy-out and led the Group through its London Stock Exchange IPO in 2002 before retiring from the Group in 2006 to develop a portfolio of non-executive and teaching roles.  

 Dr Philip Marsden has over thirty years of experience enforcing financial services and competition law, and devising new frameworks of regulation. His current portfolio includes academic, government and private sector roles. Philip is currently Deputy Chair of the Bank of England’s Enforcement Decision Making Committee, and case decisionmaker at the Financial Conduct Authority and the Payment Systems Regulator. He is also Professor of Law and Economics at the College of Europe, Bruges, teaching the core Masters in Law. For ten years, Philip held various government roles, first as member of the Board of the Office of Fair Trading, then as Inquiry Chair and Senior Director, Case Decision Groups, at the Competition and Markets Authority, where he decided on Phase II mergers, market investigations and antitrust cases, particularly focussed on pharma and banking.

The meeting is generously being hosted by Norton Rose Fulbright and being held in their offices at 3 More London Riverside, London, SE1 2AQ. Registration is from 5pm for a 5.30pm start. The talks will be followed by a networking drinks reception.

Members can register via the SPE notices and newsletter.

We are very grateful to Norton Rose Fulbright for kindly hosting this event.