PhonepayPlus appoints new Board members and Director of Policy and External Relations

Steve Ricketts joins the PhonepayPlus Board as an Industry Member and brings a great deal of relevant knowledge and experience to the role. Founding his consulting business ATAO (UK) Limited in 2011, he has advised a number of high profile organisations on payment services and mobile strategy. Prior to this, he spent over five years at Orange / EE where he was Head of Mobile Commerce and Marketing Services and has sat on major industry boards and initiatives, including the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), the GSM Association Mobile Media Metrics, Payforit and the Direct Marketing Association Mobile Council.

Kevin Brown joins the Board as a non-Industry Member. He is currently a senior advisor with KPMG, providing insights into the payment market place globally. He has recently joined the new Payment Services Regulator Advisory Panel as a special industry advisor. He holds a non-executive Chairman position with RBS (Lux) SA, an independent cross border fund management service backed by RBS. Prior to this, he spent a long successful career in banking with Royal Bank of Scotland / NatWest, with his final role being MD for Global Transaction Services.

Andrew Pinder CBE, Chairman of PhonepayPlus, commented:
“I am very pleased that we have been able to appoint two such able and well qualified individuals to add to the expertise of our Board. The range of activities that we now have to regulate in order to fulfil our remit has, because of the vigour of innovation in our industry as technology has evolved, widened very considerably in recent years and continues to do so. In particular, there has been a great increase in the variety of payment mechanisms offered for online services which now sit alongside the traditional simple premium rate phone call as a convenient means by which consumers can pay for certain types of services.'

“In Kevin and Steve we have two new non-executive directors who will bring to our Board a wealth of very relevant experience and skill in payment systems, telecommunications and technology. This will further enhance our ability to respond to the rapid change taking place in the services we cover with proportionate and relevant regulation that provides proper protection, particularly for children and other vulnerable people, and encourages responsible innovation with its associated benefits to consumers.”

Simon Towler joins PhonepayPlus as Director of Policy and External Relations from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport where he held senior positions, most recently leading on telecommunications regulation, spectrum policy and facilitating the rollout of communications networks. He was head of the UK delegation to the World Conference on International Telecommunications in December 2012 and was also responsible for the DCMS programme that led to the auction of spectrum for 4G mobile broadband services by Ofcom in February 2013. Prior to this, he was with the Department of Trade and Industry, holding various policy posts in civil aerospace, international trade policy, nuclear issues, and better regulation. He also spent four years in the United States on secondment to the British Embassy in Washington DC.

Joanne Prowse, Acting Chief Executive of PhonepayPlus, said:
“Simon Towler will be a real asset to PhonepayPlus. He has 20 years’ experience of policymaking across government and a strong knowledge of telecommunications, on which he led for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. I am pleased to welcome him to our team.”