David Baker, the Financial Services Authority regulator, has spent a year keeping an eye on Hugh Osmond. From his office in the Docklands, East London, Mr Baker has pored over the activities of the PizzaExpress turned insurance entrepreneur.
Now Mr Baker looks set for a role reversal — with Mr Osmond as the boss — after signing up to work as director of business transformation at Pearl Group, the closed-fund specialist.
Mr Baker, 39, joins the group, which is based in Peterborough, after seven years at the City watchdog. During that time he has worked on the regulation of banks, risk assessment and on retail financial services projects. He was appointed to head up the regulator’s closed-fund unit in February 2003.
At Pearl he will be responsible for keeping the customers happy — not by definition a prime consideration for a company that does not need to attract new customers. Pearl hopes that Mr Baker’s efforts will persuade companies looking to offload their closed funds to sell them to Pearl.
Prior to joining the FSA, Mr Baker spent ten years as an economist, working in international development.