Head of new RICS board revealed

RICS has hired Dame Janet Paraskeva, the chief executive of the Law Society, to lead the new board.

Head of new RICS board revealed

Dame Janet Paraskeva,chief executive of the Law Society, will lead RICS’ new Standards and Regulation Board.

Paraskeva (pictured) will help to appoint new board members, which will consist of five independent non-executive members and five RICS professional members, in time for the board to take up its responsibilities in February 2020.

Paraskeva said: "RICS professionals work all over the world across all sectors, and at a cross-governmental level. It is vitally important that common professional standards apply across the world to create and sustain a foundation for confident markets, for the benefit of everyone.

“I am looking forward to chairing the new Standards and Regulation Board and putting my experience of regulation in other sectors to good use.

“We need to ensure that there is an independent, public-interest perspective across RICS’ standard setting and regulatory processes to protect the public and to encourage better regulation.”

Paraskeva has experience of regulation and leading national boards and organisations, having become the first civil service commissioner in 2006.

Her former posts also include being a non-executive director of Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency and she is currently chair of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers in England and Wales.

Richard Collins, RICS executive director of the Profession, added: “Our appointment of Dame Janet and the establishment of the new Standards and Regulation Board demonstrates our unwavering commitment to ensuring that our profession remains trusted by society.

“With her wealth of knowledge and expertise in the professions and in public interest regulation Janet will provide strong leadership and help us set professional and technical standards, and assurance that they are met, across all of the markets in which RICS professionals operate.”