FCA senior man on the move to growing comms agency

A SENIOR ADVISOR at the City watchdog is set for a new gig at a growing comms and public affairs firm.

FCA man Ramesh Chhabra is to leave his role as right hand man to CEO Nikhil Rathi for a job at Lexington, the expanding comms agency.

Chhabra – regarded as one of the most effective comms advisors in the Square Mile – first won plaudits as press secretary to then-Chancellor George Osborne, before taking senior roles first at the London Stock Exchange Group and then Blackstone EMEA, guiding the firm’s reputational work in the UK through the pandemic and a slew of deals and geopolitical crises.

At LSEG insiders credit Chhabra with putting the UK’s retention of clearing onto the policy agenda. He was headhunted by Rathi to help drive through a number of reforms to the City watchdog, both internal and external, including the consumer duty and changes to the firm’s reward structures.

At Lexington, the new senior counsel will lead the expansion of the firm’s advisory business alongside chairmanPaul Harrison, formerly of 10 Downing Street.

The comms agency, founded by ex Labour man Mike Craven, has doubled in size in the last three years and was recently taken over by a Japanese outfit with a host of global comms agencies in its portfolio.