back to menuNow that Marie Jennings has stepped down as NfCG Chairman and has agreed to become a Vice President, it can be revealed that, back in 1969, she was elected Woman of the Year! The theme of the Woman of the Year lunch that year was a government cabinet made up entirely of women! She was allocated the Treasury portfolio!
This year she is attending the lunch again, having been picked out from a nomination list of over 2000 for her many years of work on the key issue of money education. She founded and chaired the first money education charity in the UK and pioneered the subject on television and in consumer magazines.
Commenting about her invitation she says:
"I am delighted to be part of such a unique event. This meeting of leading women celebrates women's achievements in a wide cross-section of occupations and I am proud to have been nominated".
In what must have been almost the first action on taking up his post as Director General John Vickers announced the appointment of Penny Boys as his Deputy Director General of Fair Trading.
Miss Boys is currently the Secretary to the Competition Commission (previously the Monopolies and Mergers Commission), a post which she has held since July 1996. Her previous posts were as Head of Personnel at the DTI (1993-96), and she was the first Deputy Director General at the Office of Electricity Regulation (OFFER) when it was set up in 1989. She has also worked for the Treasury, the former Department of Energy and on secondment to the British National Oil Corporation and is clearly a lady of wide experience.
When Miss Boys takes up her post will depend on arrangements for her replacement at the Competition Commission.
Stephen Byers, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry has appointed Professor John Vickers to take over from John Bridgeman as Director General of Fair Trading. He started on the first of October.
Mr. Vickers has moved from the Bank of England where, since 1998, he was their Chief Economist and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee. As a Professor of Economics at Oxford University hoe has written widely about competition and regulation. He should have an interesting approach to the job about which he has said:
"The OFT is in the process of change and I am fortunate to be able to lead it in the challenging times ahead. How well the OFT does its job matters not just for UK consumers but also for the UK's economic performance generally. My primary aim will be to ensure that markets are working well. Consumers are best served when businesses are in keen competition for their custom, and when they can make well informed choices. When markets work well, competitive businesses prosper too".
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