FCA makes senior hires

Mel Gunewardena will take up a Senior Advisor role at the FCA. Mel is currently Chief Market Intelligence Officer at the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission based in Washington DC and a former Managing Director at Goldman Sachs. Mel will join the FCA in mid-May.

Graeme Reynolds has been appointed Director of Competition. Graeme is currently one of the FCA’s deputy chief economists. Graeme will bring to bear his significant analytical skills by leading the FCA’s teams undertaking competition market studies, as well as those who investigate competition enforcement cases.

Simon Walls has been appointed as an Interim Wholesale Director. Simon has been Head of Wholesale Markets since 2016 and has been with the FCA/FSA since 2006 in a variety of wholesale roles, including 7 years in asset management supervision. The FCA is currently recruiting two permanent Wholesale Directors to join the FCA’s Supervision, Policy and Competition senior leadership team.

The FCA has successfully recruited over 250 colleagues so far this year as staff turnover returns to pre-pandemic levels.

Nikhil Rathi, Chief Executive of the FCA, said: ‘I continue to be impressed and encouraged by the talent, both internal and external, putting themselves forward to lead our organisation. I look forward to working closely with Mel when he joins and congratulate Graeme and Simon on their promotions. We anticipate having more senior appointments to announce soon.’

Notes to editors

1. Mel is a former Goldman Sachs Managing Director from the Currency and Commodities Division and was a Senior Managing Director at Deutsche Bank AG and State Street Banks Global Market Divisions. In his previous roles, Mel has held various senior leadership responsibilities in New York, Washington D.C., London, and Hong Kong in global trading, risk management, investment management, policy, supervision, and handling regulatory matters across global commodities and derivatives markets.
2. Graeme has been Deputy Chief Economist and Head of Department for Economic and Financial Analysis at the FCA since 2017, having previously been a manager in the FCA’s Competition Division. Prior to that, Graeme spent nearly ten years at the Competition Commission (now the Competition and Markets Authority) as Director of Remedies, Business and Financial Analysis, and as an Economic Adviser. Graeme’s experience also includes five years as an economic consultant with Deloitte and Andersen. Graeme is appointed Director of Competition with immediate effect following a highly competitive internal and external recruitment process. 
3. Simon’s most recent role has been as Head of Wholesale Markets Supervision, which he has led since 2016. Simon has helped the FCA navigate the challenges of EU withdrawal, LIBOR, the implementation of MiFID II and the recent pandemic and Russian invasion of Ukraine. Before that Simon held a variety of wholesale roles at the FCA’s predecessor, including supervising large asset managers, custody banks and alternative investment firms back to the financial crisis. Simon started his career at the Bank of England and joined the FSA in 2006. 
4. Find out more information about the FCA.