Since joining NIPSO in 2014 Sean has held the roles of Director of Investigations  and Acting Deputy Ombudsman and was appointed Deputy Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman and the Deputy Northern Ireland Local Government Commissioner for Standards in December 2022. Sean has been leading the work for NIPSO to implement new standards for the management of complaints across the public sector in Northern Ireland and to develop resources to support the public sector implement the new standards. Prior to joining NIPSO Sean gained extensive experience in the local government sector and held a number of senior roles in councils in Northern Ireland. Sean holds a first class Honours Degree in Environmental Health and has post graduate qualifications in Occupational Safety and Health, Organisation and Management and Health Promotion.

Clair has been a Senior Ombudsman at the Legal Ombudsman since 2014.  Clair’s particular focus is with LeO’s Early Resolution Team as well as being the Senior Ombudsman vulnerable customer champion.  Prior to working at LeO Clair has worked for various regulators, including Ofwat and Ofsted, leading on complaints investigations and management, as well as delivering a wide range of project work.

In her current role, Clair jointly leads projects focused on improving the effectiveness of first tier complaint processes, helping lawyers and consumers resolve complaints without the need for them to be escalated to LeO.

Robert Loughlin is Chief Operating Officer at The Pensions Ombudsman and joined in January 2024.

Robert has organisation-wide responsibility for Operations, the Corporate Services functions and Legal, and leads the Strategic direction of The Pensions Ombudsman, working in partnership with the Ombudsman and accountable to the Corporate Board. He is a member of both the Executive and the Corporate Board.

Robert’s previous role was at the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) as the Executive Director of Operations and Performance. During his time at the SRA, he oversaw the transformation of the organisation’s operational work, delivering significant improvements in both the timeliness and levels of customer service of operational work.

Prior to that, Robert was an Assistant Director at the General Medical Council (GMC) for 10 years, where he led operational and change management functions, including the GMC’s fitness to practise investigation and enforcement operation.

Robert has an MBA from Kingston University and began his career as a graduate trainee and then store manager at Marks and Spencer Plc, before moving into the world of professional regulation in the late 1990s.

Paula, a graduate of the London Business School and a trained barrister, started the role on 1 August 2025.

She joins PSO from the financial technology firm OneID where she has been CEO since 2023.

Paula was CEO at the Student Loans Company from 2018 to 2022, and the Charity Commission, from 2014 to 2017.

She has extensive leadership experience, particularly in delivering major transformation and change programmes and services in the public, private and voluntary sectors.

She was awarded a CBE in 2022 for services to higher education.

Nic leads the Citizen Experience Improvement (CitX) team at GovMetric, working exclusively with public service providers to help them understand how citizens experience the services they deliver.

He strongly believes that systemic analysis of the Voice of the Citizen (VoC), Voice of the Employee (VoE) and behavioural and demand data are essential to correctly diagnose why services do or don’t work, and to identify the root causes of systemic failure.

Nic holds a Business Studies degree and is a recent graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10KSB programme at the Oxford University Business School.

Laura Carty is Head of Complaints at Ofgem, a role she has held for the past four years. She leads teams responsible for handling complaints across Ofgem’s schemes and regulatory functions, using the insight gained from customer experiences to drive continuous improvement and enhance consumer journeys.

Laura is passionate about ensuring consumers are heard, understood and treated fairly and believes complaints are one of the most valuable sources of organisational learning. She works closely with teams across Ofgem to turn customer feedback into meaningful improvements, helping to strengthen services, build trust and improve outcomes for consumers.

At the heart of Laura’s work is a commitment to creating a fair, accessible and effective complaints service that not only resolves concerns but uses them as an opportunity to learn, improve and deliver a better experience for consumers.

I am Head of Complaints at the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, leading the council’s approach to complaints, member enquiries and information governance. In this role, I oversee the end-to-end management of complaints, Freedom of Information requests and Subject Access Requests, ensuring robust governance, transparency, and continuous service improvement across the organisation

I have a strong track record of using customer insight to drive organisational learning and improve service delivery. I have led the development of policies and procedures that support consistent, fair and accountable handling of complaints and casework, working closely with elected members, operational services, and senior leadership.

I am passionate about embedding a customer-focused culture, strengthening how organisations learn from feedback, and supporting teams to manage the operational and emotional demands of complaints handling. I bring a practical, data-informed perspective to building services that are responsive, transparent, and centred on the needs of residents. I am also passionate about modernising complaints services through the effective use of technology and AI. I am focused on how digital tools can improve accessibility, streamline processes, and help teams better understand patterns in customer feedback, enabling earlier intervention and more proactive service improvement.

Mehboob Khan is Head of Customer Service Delivery at the London Borough of Redbridge, where he leads customer experience, complaints, insight, information governance and service improvement functions. He is responsible for ensuring resident feedback and complaints are used to improve services, strengthen accountability and drive organisational learning across the Council.

With more than 25 years’ experience across local government, the NHS and public service leadership, Mehboob has held a wide range of senior executive, governance and elected leadership roles. He previously served as Leader of Kirklees Council and Chair of West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority, becoming the first British Muslim council leader in the UK and one of the first people from an ethnic minority background to chair a major fire authority.

Alongside his local government career, Mehboob has held senior NHS leadership and governance roles, including Vice-Chair and Acting Chair of Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust. He has led large-scale transformation, performance improvement and organisational change programmes, with a particular focus on improving outcomes for residents and tackling inequalities.

Mehboob is passionate about creating learning cultures where complaints are viewed as valuable insight rather than failure, helping organisations improve services, support staff, strengthen trust and deliver better outcomes for communities.

After over 20 years in the Civil Service (education and skills) Helen joined the University of Warwick in 2018. Helen leads the Student Discipline and Resolution team having overall responsibility for the effective and empathetic delivery of prevention and awareness training, the processes relating to supporting student and staff disclosures of misconduct (sexual misconduct, bullying and harassment, discrimination and hate crime) and formal investigations and subsequent disciplinary action.