The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has appointed a deputy chief ombudsman and chief operating officer (COO) to work under incoming CEO and chief ombudsman Abby Thomas.
The regulator is also currently recruiting for the positions of chief people officer and chief finance and risk officer.
Karl Khan joins as COO having been seconded from HM Revenue and Customs to the Test and Trace service where he was responsible for rolling out community testing to all local authorities in England. He was as operations performance and improvement director during his secondment at the UK Health Security Agency.
Previously Khan was interim director general, customer services group at HMRC where he was responsible for the strategy and delivery of customer facing operations.
Prior to that he was director for operations planning and performance at the Department for Work and Pensions and central operations director at the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission.
Meanwhile, James Dipple-Johnstone will take up the position of deputy chief ombudsman.
He has been deputy commissioner for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) since 2017 providing strategic leadership focused on dispute resolution and enforcement domestically and internationally.
He has also held senior posts in UK police, health and government oversight agencies leading teams dealing with professional misconduct, criminal, maladministration, information rights and fraud complaints.
The pair, along with Thomas, will take up their roles by 3 October.
FOS chairwoman Baroness Manzoor said she was delighted that Khan and Dipple-Johnstone will be joining the FOS as they had both demonstrated strong senior leadership skills and brought a wealth of experience of working in large customer focused organisations.
Dipple-Johnstone said: “I’m excited to take up this role with the Financial Ombudsman, which gives me the opportunity to help maintain public trust in the UK financial services sector by delivering a fair and impartial complaints and investigations service.
“I’m committed to bringing improvements to people’s lives by delivering positive outcomes for the service.”
Khan added: “The Financial Ombudsman is an organisation with core aims and values that align with my own, delivering great customer service with integrity and fairness.
“I’m very proud and passionate about good public services and this is a great opportunity where I can use my experience and contribute to making a difference to society.”