Our Board of Directors

The Board of Directors sets the strategy of our service and makes sure we plan effectively for it. The Board also makes sure we have the resources we need to work successfully and independently.

Each Director is appointed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as an independent member of the Board. They don’t represent any particular group or sector. They’re also ‘non-executive’, which means they don’t get involved with individual complaints.

The Board approves our annual report and accounts, which looks at the performance of our service over the last year. The report describes the Board’s responsibilities in more detail and includes information about their fees, which are set by the FCA. 

Our Board is committed to being independently reviewed on a regular basis, in line with good practice in the public sector, to ensure it's well governed. In 2023, we commissioned Liz Cross from The Connectives to conduct a review of board effectiveness. She reported, "The Board is effective in governing the Financial Ombudsman with some examples of excellent or exemplary practice."

Board members

Baroness Zahida Manzoor CBE

Chair of the Board

Chair of the Nomination Committee
Member of the Remuneration Commitee

Baroness Manzoor was appointed to the House of Lords in 2013, where she served as House of Lords Government Whip and Minister between March 2018 and May 2019. Before joining the Lords, Baroness Manzoor spent over 20 years at board level within large, complex organisations. She currently  serves as an Independent Director on the England and Wales Cricket Board. She also served as The Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales and The Legal Services Complaints Commissioner. 

While a member of the NHS’ policy board, Baroness Manzoor was one of eight Regional Chairs overseeing the NHS’ operations and was involved in leading significant transformation programmes.

View Baroness Zahida Manzoor CBE profile

Bill Castell

Member of the Board

Member of the Nomination Committee
Member of the Audit Risk and Compliance Committee

Bill is a chartered accountant and is Group Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Board at Gamma Communications plc. He is also on the Board of Governor’s at Whitgift School and sits on its finance committee.

Bill started his career in the British Army before holding senior cross-functional roles in finance and operations. Bill has worked across a variety of sectors, ranging from finance and the media to energy. Before Gamma, Bill was Group Chief Financial Officer at OVO Energy and a member of the board. Bill’s previous roles include Chief Financial Officer positions at Barclays Bank and Virgin Media.

View Bill Castell profile

Sarah Lee

Member of the Board

Member of the Nomination Committee
Member of the Remuneration Committee

Sarah is currently a Senior Consultant at Slaughter and May where she has spent the majority of her career. Sarah was previously a partner with overall responsibility for graduate recruitment and partner with overall responsibility for diversity and inclusion. Prior to this Sarah worked as the Head of their Disputes and Investigations Group and Practice Stream and as an elected member of the Partnership Board.

Sarah is Solicitor Commissioner of the Judicial Appointments Commission and a Non-Executive Director at both the Independent Press Standards Organisation, and NED Rare Recruitment. She is also a Governor at Cripplegate Foundation, Chair at Islington Giving and a Trustee at Otto Giesen Trust.

View Sarah Lee profile

Ruth Leak

Member of the Board

Member of the Nomination Committee
Member of the Transformation Committee

Ruth is a non-executive Director at Smart Metering Systems (SMS). She chairs its IT committee and also sits on its Audit, Remuneration and Health, Safety and Sustainability Committee. Previously, Ruth had a career in consumer-oriented organisations including ten years at the Royal Mail, culminating in her role as Chief Information Officer for the Letters and Network division. She also chaired the Royal Mail’s Disability Steering Group.

Before joining the Royal Mail, Ruth worked at Kurt Salmon Associates – a global consultancy specialising in retail and consumer goods and prior to that she worked in a variety of roles focussed on systems and consumer retail including Debenhams and Ocado. Alongside her NED role for SMS, Ruth also mentors rising stars in the industry through the Women in Technology programme run by Reed Global.

View Ruth Leak profile

Jacob Abboud

Member of the Board

Member of the Nomination Committee
Member of the Audit Risk and Compliance Committee
Chair of the Transformation Committee

Jacob is a non-executive Director for the Government’s Department for Transport – DVSA and non-executive Director for the UK Statistics Authority. Jacob also runs his own consultancy firm, Petraenovus Consulting, which provides advice and services to Financial Services organisations on IT and business transformation. He is also a Trustee at the Workforce Development Trust.  During his career Jacob has been a non-executive Director for the Motor Insurance Bureau where he chaired the Digital Transformation Board sub-Committee and co-chaired its Nomination Committee.  He was also a non-executive Director for Premierline Broking firm.

In his executive career, Jacob was formally a Chief Information Officer – most recently for Axa (interim) and before that, Allianz, and prior to that Legal & General. Before that he held a variety of roles in banking (retail & investment) and e-Commerce/digital start-ups. Jacob was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in Computer-Aided Engineering from Bath University.  He is also a member of Camelot Network, an independent consultancy network specialising in key areas of the Insurance and Financial Services Industry and a Chartered member of the BCS and the CII.

View Jacob Abboud profile

Shrinivas Honap

Member of the Board

Member of the Nomination Committee
Chair of the Audit Risk and Compliance Committee
Member of the Transformation Committee

Shrinivas is a non-executive director and audit committee chair for Corps Security Limited and a non-executive director for the Civil Service Pensions Board and Nuclear Waste Services. He is also the Director of SaiAum Accounting Limited and a Lay member of both the Pensions Regulator’s Determination Panel and House of Commons Commission, where he is also the Audit and Risk Committee Chair.  

Shrinivas was previously a non-executive director and chair for the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency and also held non-executive and sub-committee chair roles for the British Transport Police Authority, South Staffordshire NHS, Office of the Legal Ombudsman, Office of the Public Guardian,  UK Atomic Energy Authority and UK Space Agency. Shrinivas is a Chartered accountant by profession and served with Capita, Vodafone and Egg during his executive career.

View Shrinivas Honap profile

Nigel Fretwell

Member of the Board

Member of the Nomination Committee
Chair of the Remuneration Committee
Senior Independent Director

Nigel has spent his entire career in Financial Services working across retail, commercial and wholesale businesses in Banking, Asset Management and Re/Insurance. In his last executive role, Nigel was the Chief Human Resources Officer of Swiss Re where he was also a member of the Group Executive Committee and chaired the Global Human Resources Executive Committee.

Before Swiss Re, Nigel worked for HSBC in a number of senior global Head of HR roles including the Global Head of HR, Retail Banking and Wealth Management (RBWM) where he chaired the Global RBWM People Committee and was a member of the Global RBWM Executive Committee, Global RBWM Risk Management Committee and Global HR Executive Committee. Nigel started his career at Barclays Plc, where he held various management roles including Group Employee Relations Director.

View Nigel Fretwell profile

Board meetings and subcommittees

The Board meets regularly throughout the year and publishes minutes from each meeting.

Members of the Board also meet in five subcommittees – these are the:

Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee

  • reviews our accounting policies and the effectiveness of our internal auditing
  • oversees our relationship with the National Audit Office

Nomination Committee

  • reviews the composition of the board and makes recommendations about appointments to the FCA
  • makes recommendations to the board about the appointment of the Chief Ombudsman & Chief Executive

Remuneration and People Committee 

  • oversees the pay strategy for the Executive Team and other senior staff
  • looks at proposals from the Chief Ombudsman & Chief Executive about pay across the service

Transformation Committee

  • oversees the implementation of the recommendations of the periodic review
  • reviews the progress of the service’s transformation programme against its milestones

Board Effectiveness Review

Our Board is committed to being independently reviewed on a regular basis, in line with good practice in the public sector.

In 2023, we commissioned Liz Cross from The Connectives to conduct a review of board effectiveness , which found, "The Board is effective in governing the Financial Ombudsman with some examples of excellent or exemplary practice."