Director-General
Mark Neale
Mark Neale has had a long career of public service. From 2010, he led the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) for nine years, transforming its capability in the wake of the financial crisis to protect consumers in the event of major financial failures and putting many of its services online. Before the FSCS, Mark was a civil servant in both policy and delivery roles. This culminated in Director General roles in both The Home Office where he was responsible for counter-terrorism, organised crime and international work from 2003 to 2005, and in HM Treasury where he was the Managing Director for Budget, Tax and Welfare between 2005 and 2010. Mark has also worked as a civil servant on education, employment and welfare issues.
Declarations of interest:
The Lending Standards Board – Non Executive Director
Froebel Trust – Chair
Director of People
Teresa Haskins
Teresa has strategic HR experience, as well as a background in regulation. Teresa was formerly the Director of HR at the Commonwealth Secretariat. Before that, Teresa spent ten years as the Director of Human Resources with the Health and Care Professions Council, a fellow regulator.
Interim Director of Regulatory Operations
Saima Hirji
Saima joined the BSB in 2023. She leads the Authorisations and Contact and Assessment Teams in addition to overseeing the organisation’s operational support function.
Saima qualified as a solicitor in 2006 and holds higher rights of audience in both civil and criminal law. She has over ten years’ experience in professional regulation, having previously worked at the Nursing and Midwifery Council in various legal and policy roles. She previously practised in criminal defence and human rights law.
Saima is a Council Member of The Law Society.
Director of Legal and Enforcement
Sara Jagger
Sara is responsible for leading the BSB's enforcement and legal support functions including handling investigations, disciplinary proceedings and litigation arising from the BSB’s regulatory decision making. She has been with the BSB since its inception in 2006 and has led a number of change programmes within the organisation to modernise the BSB’s enforcement functions.
Sara is a qualified barrister, who holds an employed barrister's practising certificate. She was called to the Bar in 1991 and practised in her early career from a leading London criminal chambers. She has over 20 years' experience in complaints management having previously held the roles of Assistant Ombudsman at the Prisons Ombudsman Office and Complaints Manager at Bristol City Council.
Sara has also been a Trustee of the charity Prisoners Advice Service and lay member of the Independent Review Mechanism.
Director of Strategy and Policy
Ewen MacLeod
Ewen is responsible for ensuring that we properly understand the risks in the market that we regulate and that appropriate outcomes are achieved by our regulatory arrangements to address these risks, drawing on appropriate evidence and stakeholder views to meet the regulatory objectives (particularly in the BSB Handbook and related guidance).
He is also responsible for ensuring that we set appropriate rules to support equality and diversity at the Bar and that we ourselves comply with our equality and diversity reporting duties and assess the impact of new policies on different groups. Ewen joined us in 2011.
Before that, he undertook a variety of regulatory roles at the Scottish Water Commission and the General Dental Council, before working in central Government (Department of Work and Pensions) briefing ministers, developing policy and drafting legislation. He has a degree in Scots Law and a Master of Business Administration.
Interim Director of Standards - Rupika Madhura
Rupika is responsible for the regulatory functions of supervision, training & education and ongoing competence at the Bar. She has significant experience of independent Regulation in public interest in rail, energy, water and professions sectors in the UK. Rupika joined the Bar Standards Board in 2020 and was the Head of Policy and Research until 2023.
Rupika also sits on the Customer Engagement Group (CEG) of Northern Gas Networks. And was an independent policy expert on the Customer Challenge Group (CCG) of South East Water - both roles to further the interest of consumers in energy and water sectors.
Rupika holds an MSc in Regulation from London School of Economics, MSc in Business Economics from City University and a B.A. (Honours) in Economics from Delhi University.
Director of Communications and Public Engagement
Wilf White
Wilf leads our small communications team which is responsible for leading the BSB’s engagement with its stakeholders to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to contribute to our policy making, raising awareness of our work and promoting the role of the BSB as the regulator of barristers with all relevant stakeholders.
Before joining the BSB Wilf spent twelve years in HM Treasury and fourteen years at the BBC advising on financial and regulatory issues. He has a degree in Law.
Wilf is also a member of the Business Board of the charity, Support through Court, which helps people facing the family and civil courts without legal representation. The Business Board offers the charity advice about communications and fundraising.
Our Resources Group Management Team
We share a range of support services with the Bar Council. The Resources Group Management Team consists of:
- Finance (including our Records Office and our Facilities Team)
- Director of Finance – Richard Cullen
- Information Services (including Project Management)
- Chief Information Officer – Poli Avramidis
