The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) today announced that its Chair, Verena Ross, has decided not to renew her term as Chair for a second mandate.

She will remain fully committed to ESMA and continue her work as ESMA’s Chair until the end of her contract on 31 October 2026.

ESMA will now launch the process for selecting a new Chair.

Verena Ross took up the role on 1 November 2021. Between 2011 and 2021 Verena Ross served as ESMA’s first Executive Director, when she was responsible for building up the organisation and overseeing its day to day running.

Prior to this, she held a number of senior posts in the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) and was a member of the FSA’s Executive Committee. Verena Ross joined the FSA in 1998 to run the Executive Chairman’s office during the regulator’s start-up phase and was briefly a seconded advisor to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission in 2000. She held various positions in the FSA’s Markets Division and was Director of Strategy & Risk Division before becoming Director of the International Division.

Verena Ross began her career at the Bank of England in 1994, where she worked as an economist and banking supervisor.