The UK's financial watchdog has hired three new people to join its senior leadership team.

Mel Gunewardena, who 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, will join the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as senior advisor later this month.

Graeme Reynolds, who is a deputy chief economist at the regulator, will take on the role of director of competition. He will lead the organisation’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. Walls has been head of wholesale markets since 2016 and has been with the FCA/FSA since 2006 in a variety of wholesale roles, including seven years in asset management supervision.

“I continue to be impressed and encouraged by the talent, both internal and external, putting themselves forward to lead our organisation,” said Nikhil Rathi, chief executive, FCA. “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.”

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

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