Senior Management Team
The Independent Adjudicator and Chief Executive
Rob Behrens
robert.behrens@oiahe.org.uk
Rob has been Independent Adjudicator and Chief Executive of the OIA since May 2008. He was Complaints Commissioner to the Bar Standards Board, regulating the behaviour of barristers in England and Wales between 2006 and 2008. In addition to handling individual complaints, he published a Strategic Review of Complaints and Discipline; a review now fully implemented by the Board. Before that Rob was a Cabinet Office senior Civil Servant and Secretary to the Committee on Standards in Public Life between 2003 and 2006. He joined the Cabinet Office following twelve years as a lecturer in higher education.
Deputy Adjudicators
Felicity Mitchell
felicity.mitchell@oiahe.org.uk
Felicity joined the OIA in 2004, and became a Deputy Adjudicator in 2009, having responsibility for legal claims against the OIA, including judicial review. She is a key member of the Senior Management and Approval Teams. Felicity was called to the Bar in 1992 and, after some years in private practice, moved to the Banking Ombudsman as an adjudicator. She transferred to the Financial Ombudsman Service in 2001, where she worked as a Casework Manager.
Susanna Reece
susanna.reece@oiahe.org.uk
Susanna joined the OIA in 2004 and became a Deputy Adjudicator in 2009. She is a member of the Senior Management and Approval Teams with responsibility for oversight of the adjudication staff team, good practice dissemination and operation of the Higher Education Advisory Panel. Susanna qualified as a solicitor in 1985 and, from 1993 to 1998, worked at the Law Society handling complaints about solicitors. Subsequently she has provided consultancy services on professional ethics, regulation and complaints handling to a wide range of organisations.
Chief Operating Officer and Company Secretary
Ben Elger
ben.elger@oiahe.org.uk
Ben joined the OIA as its first Chief Operating Officer in September 2008. He combines the role with that of Company Secretary. Ben is a member of the Management Team with key responsibility for finance and human resources management. Before joining the OIA Ben spent 15 years working with students, for the last 10 years as Chief Executive of Reading University Students' Union, and before that at the Students' Unions at Winchester, King's College London and South Bank Universities and as National Secretary of NUS.