The Legal Services Board today announces the appointment of Tom Hayhoe as the new Chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel from 1 May 2024.
Tom succeeds Sarah Chambers, whose term of office ends on 30 April 2024. Sarah has served two three-year terms as Chair since 1 May 2018.
Alan Kershaw, Chair of the Legal Services Board, said:
‘I am delighted to announce Tom’s appointment as the new Chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel. His career spans a range of public and private sector organisations, and we look forward to benefiting from his broad experience and knowledge and working with him in the public interest to ensure legal services better meet the needs of people who need them.
‘I would also like to thank Sarah for her considerable contribution to the Legal Services Consumer Panel. Under her leadership, the Panel has gone from strength to strength, and she leaves it as a major and credible source of advice and direction in the sector. She has been instrumental in promoting our shared mission of ensuring legal services work better for society by ensuring the interests of consumers are put right at the heart of legal services regulation while preserving with great energy the Panel’s independence.’
Tom Hayhoe said:
‘I am looking forward to applying my experience addressing the needs of consumers and representing the interests of the public to the important work of the Legal Services Consumer Panel.’
About Tom Hayhoe
Tom Hayhoe’s career has been spent in corporate strategy, consumer marketing, and public engagement in governance roles in healthcare.
He has an MBA from Stanford University. He spent many years in the private sector working as a management consultant with McKinsey, The Brackenbury Group and the Chambers and in retail management with WH Smith and chairing the board of video game retailer Gamestation. He served as a non-executive director of NHS bodies alongside his commercial roles before becoming chair of West Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust and, for the past eight years, chair of West London NHS Trust.
He also has extensive experience of professional regulation as a panel chair with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. He currently chairs the Taxation Disciplinary Board and is an external assessor for the College of Policing.
Tom lives in Hammersmith with his wife Natalie who, following retirement from a career as general counsel in large companies, is retraining as a physiotherapist and due to qualify later this year.