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The Financial Secretary has appointed Mr Mark Dickens as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) for a term of three years starting from April 1, 2013. The appointment will be published in the gazette tomorrow (March 22).
Announcing the appointment, a Government spokesman said that Mr Dickens was found by a search committee through a worldwide open recruitment exercise.
"The search committee recognised Mr Dickens' extensive experience in financial market regulation. He has been working with financial regulators in Australia and Hong Kong for over 20 years and is well versed with issues concerning market supervision and enforcement," the spokesman said.
Mr Dickens is a lawyer by training. He has been the Executive Vice-President and Head of Listing Division of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited since 2009 and retired from the position on March 1, 2013. For 14 years, Mr Dickens held various senior positions in the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), including serving as an Executive Director from 1997 to 2005. He was also a member of the FRC from December 2006 to January 2009 on the nomination of the SFC.
"We would like to take this opportunity to thank the outgoing CEO of the FRC, Dr Kam Pok-man, for his invaluable contributions to the Council in the past three years. He has played an instrumental role in the efficient performance of the FRC's statutory function to uphold the quality of financial reporting in Hong Kong.
"During his tenure, the FRC launched a new risk-based financial statements review programme in January 2011. This new initiative aims to identify possible auditing irregularities or non-compliance with accounting requirements in financial statements in a more proactive and effective manner," the spokesman said.
The FRC is an independent statutory body established in December 2006 to investigate possible auditing and reporting irregularities as well as to enquire into possible non-compliance with accounting requirements in relation to companies and collective investment schemes listed in Hong Kong. It commenced full operation on July 16, 2007. As the CEO, Mr Dickens will report to the FRC and be charged with full administrative and management responsibility of the FRC Secretariat.
The search committee was chaired by the Chairman of the FRC, Mr John Poon. Its members comprised FRC members Mr Roger Best and Mr Chew Fook-aun; a member of the Honorary Advisory Panel of the FRC, Dr Eric Li; a former member of the FRC, Dr Moses Cheng, and a representative of the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau.
Ends/Thursday, March 21, 2013
Issued at HKT 15:32
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