Larry Whitty – Chair
Was appointed Chair of Consumer Focus in July 2007. He was previously Chair of the National Consumer Council from 6 March 2006.
Lord Whitty has held the position of Minister for Transport in the Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions and Minister for food, farming and sustainable energy in Defra, including the delivery of improvements to those in fuel poverty. He is currently a member of the Board of the Environment Agency, President of the Combined Heat and Power Association (CHPA) and Chair of a CHP company.
Prior to going into the House of Lords in 1996, Lord Whitty worked in the aircraft industry and the civil service, with his main career in the trade union movement (working for the TUC and GMB) and the Labour Party. He served as General Secretary of the party from 1985 to 1994. During that period he was heavily involved in policy development on social and environmental issues, including access for low-income groups to public and private services.
He takes a strong personal interest in issues of sustainability, access to services for low-income groups (particularly for housing, education and transport, and financial services), and corporate accountability for social and environmental impacts on consumers and the wider community. Declaration of Interests
Mike O’Connor – Chief Executive
Mike O’Connor joined Consumer Focus as Chief Executive in January 2010. His role is to change the behaviour of business, Government and regulators to ensure consumers are at the very heart of their thinking.
He was previously Chief Executive of the Olympic Lottery Distributor and Director of the Millennium Commission. Both organisations distributed funds generated by the National Lottery. The Millennium Commission awarded £2,300 million on a range of projects to assist the communities of the UK in marking the end of the second millennium and celebrating the start of the third. The Olympic Lottery Distributor has a budget of nearly £2,000m to support London 2012. Mike has also been the Chair of the UK and England wide Lottery Forum for three years. The Forum brings together the Chief Executives of the relevant Lottery bodies to formulate common strategies and promote joint working.
Before joining the Millennium Commission in 1996, Mike worked at a senior level in both Government and the voluntary sector. His early career was in the Department of Health, HM Treasury and Cabinet Office. Posts in the Civil service included Private Secretary to the Minister of Health. His duties ranged from general policy development to negotiating on behalf of the UK on European Commission Directives.
After leaving the Civil Service he became the Director of a campaigning organisation, the Coronary Prevention Group. Other jobs included Director for Developed Economies at Consumers International (formerly the International Organisation of Consumer Unions) which is an international federation of consumer bodies which campaigns for consumers’ rights across the world. He has degrees in natural and social science and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He has sat on the boards of a number of voluntary organisations and for the last eight years he was Hon Treasurer the Mental Health Foundation.
He received a CBE in The Queen’s Birthday Honour’s List 2000.