A high-flying former management consultant and NHS trust chair was today named as the next head of the Legal Services Consumer Panel. Retail, health and governance expert Tom Hayhoe, 68, will succeed current two-term chair Sarah Chambers on 1 May.

Hayhoe was educated at the University of Cambridge and Stanford University in the US. He began his career at global management consultancy McKinsey before moving into retail management with WH Smith and chairing the board of video game retailer Gamestation. He served as a non-executive director of NHS bodies alongside his commercial roles before becoming chair of West Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust and, for the past eight years, chair of West London NHS Trust.

He is a former panel chair at the Nursing and Midwifery Council. He currently chairs the Taxation Disciplinary Board and is an external assessor for the College of Policing, the LSB announcement stated. 

Hayhoe, a Conservative at university, was one of a group of centrist Tory members who defected to the newly formed Social Democrat Party in 1981. He stood as a parliamentary candidate for the SDP in the 1987 general election. He is well known in yacht racing circles as an international competitor.  

Portrait of Tom Hayhoe

Hayhoe: 'Important work of the Legal Services Panel'

Source: LSB

Announcing the appointment, Alan Kershaw, LSB chair, said: ‘I am delighted to announce Tom’s appointment as the new chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel. His career spans a range of public and private sector organisations, and we look forward to benefiting from his broad experience and knowledge and working with him in the public interest to ensure legal services better meet the needs of people who need them.

‘I would also like to thank Sarah for her considerable contribution to the Legal Services Consumer Panel. Under her leadership, the panel has gone from strength to strength, and she leaves it as a major and credible source of advice and direction in the sector.' 

Hayhoe said: ‘I am looking forward to applying my experience addressing the needs of consumers and representing the interests of the public to the important work of the Legal Services Consumer Panel.’

The consumer panel, created by the Legal Services Act 2007, is an independent arm of the LSB and is made up of eight lay members whose appointments were approved by the lord chancellor.

 

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