John has a long career in customer experience in the public and regulated sectors.
He worked in the administration of legal aid for more than 20 years where he built his expertise in assessing the merits of legal disputes and the operational management of high-volume customer interactions. He led on the Legal Aid Board’s compliance with ISO9000 series quality procedures and setting up its first formal complaints handling systems. As a director with the Legal Services Commission, he led the strategic planning of publicly funded legal services and the oversight of law firms delivering those services.
At the Solicitors Regulation Authority John was Head of Casework and Director of Authorisation, again leading investigations into, and quality assurance of, legal service providers, before spending seven years as a Senior Ombudsman with the Financial Ombudsman Service. There he led the resolution of insurance disputes and contributed to major regulatory change to drive greater fairness for consumers in the pricing of insurance products. He went on to lead the creation of a new voluntary regulatory service within the funeral industry as CEO of IFSO and then to work as a leadership consultant creating new quality standards within the sector.
John brings a wealth of relevant operational leadership of customer-facing services, quality assurance and dispute resolution experience to the role of Waterways Ombudsman.
