Our Board
This section includes biographies for each of the Members of the Legal Services Board, including the Chair, other Ordinary Members and the Chief Executive. You can also find information about:
LSB Governance Manual
Board's interests and expenses
Board Meetings
Board committees
The Board has eight Ordinary Members, comprising the Chair and the other Members. The Chief Executive also sits on the Board.
Dr Helen Phillips is the Chair of the Legal Services Board.
The terms of appointment and re-appointment for the other Ordinary Members can be found at the end of each Member’s biography. All (re-)appointments are made in consultation with the Lord Chief Justice.
Biographical information for each Board member can be found here:
Dr Helen Phillips (Chair)
Dr Helen Phillips is the Chair of Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Chair of the Mount Trust (independent boarding school), Non-Executive Director of Social Work England, and a member of the Sheffield Business School Advisory Board.
Previously Helen was Board Director of Yorkshire Water with responsibility for customer services and networks, and Chair of Loop Customer Management Ltd, a Kelda Group subsidiary.
Prior to that her career as a regulator was as founding Chief Executive and Board member of Natural England, and before that as Director, Wales of the Environment Agency.
Term of appointment
18 June 2018 to 31 March 2023 (Chair appointment)
1 April 2018 to 31 March 2023
9 March 2015 to 31 March 2018
Catherine Brown (Member - lay)
Catherine Brown is an experienced non-executive and chief executive who has worked in the public and private sectors. She is currently an independent Board Member at the Aneurin Bevin University Hospital Board, where she also chairs the Audit Committee. Catherine is also a member of the Wellcome Trust Advisory Board on Diversity & Inclusion in Science, and of Airport Coordination Ltd, an independent slot coordination company with regulatory responsibilities. Her previous non-executive roles have included Independent Trustee of Cymorth Cymru, Trustee of the Whitehall and Industry Group (and member of the Audit and Risk Committee) and Equal Opportunities Commissioner. In terms of executive roles, Catherine was Chief Executive of the Food Standards Agency between 2012 and 2017, Chief Executive of the Animal Health & Veterinary Laboratories Agency between 2011 and 2012, where she had previously been Chief Executive Officer (2008 to 2011) and Chief Operating Officer (2007 to 2008). Prior to this, Catherine held roles in BUPA (1997 to 2007). Catherine is a CIMA qualified accountant.
Term of appointment
1 April 2019 to 31 March 2023
Jemima Coleman (Member, non-lay)
Jemima is an experienced employment lawyer at Herbert Smith Freehills LLP and is on her firm's Corporate Governance Advisory Team. She has chaired various working parties of the Employment Lawyers Association's Legislative and Policy Committee. She is on the Steering Committee of the 30% Club Professional Services Firms Initiative. In 2015 she served on the Solicitors Regulation Authority's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion committee. She is a non-executive director of Creative Access, a community interest company, which aims to improve diversity in the media and creative industries. She is a trustee and governor of Highgate School.
Term of appointment
18 April 2019 to 17 April 2023
18 April 2016 to 17 April 2019
David Eveleigh (Member - non-lay)
David Eveleigh is the General Counsel and Company Secretary of Serco. He was previously the General Counsel of BT Plc’s Global Services division. While at BT, David and his team won various awards, including the in-house team of the year and in-house lawyer of the year, and were pivotal in changing the function of in-house legal teams within the company.
David started his career as an associate at Ashurst, and graduated from Southampton University. He is currently based in the UK and has also lived and worked in the US.
Term of appointment
1 April 2017 to 31 March 2020
1 April 2014 to 31 March 2017
Marina Gibbs (Member - lay)
Marina Gibbs has been Director of Competition Policy at Ofcom since September 2007 where she leads Ofcom's policy work in relation to the postal sector as well as focusing on competition matters in the telecommunications market.
Prior to joining Ofcom, Marina worked as a strategy consultant for many years, latterly as Telecoms Partner at Spectrum Value Partners where she advised clients internationally in relation to corporate and commercial strategy development and regulatory and public policy matters.
Marina also provided commercial due diligence support to financial and trade investors in the telecoms and media sectors. Marina has an MBA from Bradford University School of Management and a Masters and BA Hons in Applied Modern Languages from the University of Grenoble, France.
Term of appointment
1 April 2017 to 31 March 2020
1 April 2014 to 31 March 2017
Jeremy Mayhew (Member - lay)
Jeremy Mayhew is Chairman of the City of London’s Finance Committee and a Member of the UK Government’s Regulatory Policy Committee. For most of the past 35 years, Jeremy has worked in the broadcasting industry– and, for the past 15 years, he has been a senior strategy consultant, mainly advising clients in and about the media sector – most recently, as a Senior Adviser in PwC’s consulting practice, having previously been a Partner and Director in other consulting firms.
Since 1996, Jeremy has been a Common Councilman (local councillor) in the City of London. Prior to chairing the City’s Finance Committee, Jeremy chaired the City Bridge Trust (London’s largest independent grant-awarding charity), the Barbican Centre Board, and the City’s Audit & Risk Management and Education Committees.
In the past, Jeremy has been a Non-Executive Adviser to the Mayor of London’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) and has served on the Boards of the London Development Agency, the Strategic Rail Authority, and BBC Worldwide (the BBC’s main commercial division).
Jeremy read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Balliol College, Oxford University and, subsequently, gained an MBA with High Distinction from Harvard Business School.
Term of appointment
1 October 2016 to 30 September 2019
Tim Sawyer CBE (Member - lay)
Tim Sawyer CBE is a senior executive experienced in turnaround, start-up and growth opportunities, having both a UK and international SME perspective. Tim is currently Chief Investment Officer at Innovate UK, which is the innovation agency of the UKL Government, focused on driving productivity and growth by helping business realise the potential for new technology. Tim is also Chairman of Folk2Folk, a peer to peer lending company covering all of rural England, and Chair of Trelonk Engineering Ltd, a Cornish based not for profit enterprise which works with local SMEs to build local engineering skills. Tim also holds a number of non-executive roles including: Independent Visitor of Springhill Prison, Competition Appeal Tribunal Member and Chair of the Board of Governors of the University of Bedfordshire.
Tim is a member of the Chartered Institute of Banking and began his career in banking, firstly at Lloyds Bank, and subsequently at Abbey National, where he was Head of Banking between 1991 and 1999.
Term of appointment
1 April 2019 to 31 March 2023
Michael Smyth CBE QC (Hon) (Member, non-lay)
Michael has been a solicitor since 1982 with the majority of this time spent at Clifford Chance advising both business and private clients. He sits on the Board of the Fundraising Regulator and is Chair of its Complaints Committee. He is also a member of the Advisory Council on National Records and Archives and of the Professional Advisory Board of the Wesleyan Assurance Society. He is a Freeman of the City of London.
Term of appointment
18 April 2019 to 17 April 2022
18 April 2016 to 17 April 2019
Catharine Seddon (Member - lay)
Catharine spent 20 years as a film maker. She started as a graduate trainee producer with the BBC and soon specialised in high-end film documentary, ultimately setting up her own production company which made films principally for C4. In 2002, she became a magistrate and eventually left television to take up other judicial roles and to become a member of the Human Tissue Authority and the independent appeals committee of the HFEA. Catharine is now the Senior Independent Director of the Gambling Commission, and sits on the Commission's Audit and Risk Committee and its fourth National Lottery Committee. She is a member of the Determinations Panel of the Pensions Regulator. She sits on tribunals in mental health and employment and as a lay assessor on high profile civil cases in the County courts. She is also a trustee for The London Centre for Children with Cerebral Palsy. As ARAC chair for the HTA, she oversaw the introduction of a comprehensive programme of assurance mapping.
Term of appointment
1 October 2016 to 30 September 2019
Neil Buckley, Chief Executive
Neil joined the LSB in January 2016 as Chief Executive and as a member of its Board.
Before joining the LSB, Neil was Director of Investigations at Ofcom, where he led a team responsible for enforcing competition law and the regulatory rules that apply to the communications sector. The team was also responsible for Ofcom's dispute resolution functions. His previous roles at Ofcom included Director of Consumer Policy.
Neil qualified as a Solicitor in 1990 and worked for a number of law firms in the City of London, specialising in international private arbitration.
Neil has a Masters degree in Regulation from the London School of Economics and an undergraduate degree in law from Hertford College, Oxford University.
LSB Governance Manual