Cathryn Ross

Cathryn Ross is the Group Regulatory Affairs Director at BT Group. At BT Ms Ross is responsible for developing and implementing BT’s regulatory strategy across the group, covering regulation in the UK and beyond.

In January 2020, Ms Ross was appointed the inaugural Chair of the Regulatory Horizons Council, an independent committee established by BEIS. As Chair, Ms Ross is responsible for leading the work of the council to ensure that UK regulation keeps pace with innovation and enables it to thrive while safeguarding the public.

Ms Ross was previously Chief Executive of Ofwat, the independent economic regulator for the water and wastewater sector in England and Wales. She was responsible for ensuring that Ofwat held a £120 billion industry to account in delivering against the expectations of customers, wider society and the environment. She successfully saw through the delivery of a new strategy for Ofwat, focussed on a vision for the sector of trust and confidence in water and wastewater services, and transformed the regulator in order to deliver this.

Ms Ross is an experienced regulatory and competition economist and has worked across a number of different sectors advising on economic, regulatory and competition issues. Previously, Ms Ross was Executive Director of Markets and Economics at the Office of Rail Regulation (now Office of Rail and Road). She was Executive Director of Markets and Economics at Ofwat between 2008 and 2011. She also served with the Competition Commission (now Competition and Markets Authority); and worked in economic consultancy.