The DRCF was formed in July 2020 to harness the collective expertise of its members: the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and Ofcom, and to ensure strong regulation of online services.

Gill Whitehead has been appointed as the DRCF’s CEO and starts on 15 November 2021. Ms Whitehead’s career has spanned the broadcast and digital media sector, having previously worked for Google, Channel 4 and the BBC. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and started her career as an economist for the Bank of England and then Deloitte.

Ms Whitehead was most recently a member of Google’s UK Management Group, leading specialist teams in data science, analytics, measurement and UX, and she previously led Google’s consumer and market insights function across Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Before joining Google in 2016, she spent eight years as a member of Channel 4’s Executive Team, where she created and led its data strategy and Audience Technologies & Insight division. Ms Whitehead recently completed a Masters degree at the University of Oxford’s Internet Institute, and holds non-executive roles at Informa PLC, Camelot UK the operator of The National Lottery, and the British Olympic Association.

As CEO of the DRCF, Ms Whitehead will lead the collective expertise of its members to ensure the digital landscape is regulated effectively, efficiently and coherently, and will oversee the delivery of the forum’s established action plan. She will oversee the Secretariat formed by each of the regulators and work closely with their CEOs to develop joined-up approaches to ensure that regulatory policy is developed in a responsive and holistic way. To read the DRCF’s announcement in full, click here