Our Executive Team
Summary
Members of our executive team are each responsible for different areas of our work. They provide leadership to their teams, and ensure we deliver the strategies provided by our Commission Board.
Our Executive Team
Vijay is our Chief Executive.
Vijay joined the Electoral Commission from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, where he was Director General. He has worked in the role on climate, energy and the environment, global health and covid, and a wide range of countries. He served as the British Ambassador to Brazil and worked in the Ministry of Justice and Cabinet Office on electoral issues, leading the programme to establish individual electoral registration, and wider issues relating to political and constitutional reform of the UK.
Binnie is General Counsel and Director of Devolution, Governance and Law. She ensures that the organisation makes good decisions and manages the legal risk of the Electoral Commission.
Binnie is responsible for the legal work of the Electoral Commission, including litigation and managing our external legal resources. She oversees the electoral reform programme for Westminster, Wales and Scotland. She supports the Board and its committees in their governance of the Electoral Commission. She is responsible for the devolved offices in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. She also oversees the Electoral Commission’s progress against its Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.
Prior to the Electoral Commission, Binnie led on data protection legal policy, working on Brexit and Covid responses. An experienced public lawyer who trained with the Government Legal Department, she has held many roles within government departments, regulators, and the Attorney General’s Office. She has wide experience in public law; and has advised on regulation, information, competition, procurement, employment, human rights and equalities.
A carer to a disabled daughter, Binnie is a trustee of a social care charity and was previously a school governor at two special schools.
Tom is the Director of Policy and Research, leading the Commission’s work to understand and analyse the challenges to well-run elections and referendums in the UK, and developing new ideas for improving things in future. This includes our comprehensive reports on elections and referendums, our wide-ranging research programme on electoral registration and participation, and our detailed analysis of policy and legislation proposed by the UK’s governments.
Tom joined the Commission when it was established in 2001, and led the Policy Team from 2009. He has also worked on secondment in the UK Government, working with the elections policy team on modernising elections. Before joining the Commission Tom worked on electoral boundary reviews at the Local Government Commission for England.
Jackie joined the Commission in January as our new Director of Electoral Administration. Jackie's full bio will follow soon.
Bio to follow shortly.
Niki is Director of Communications, with responsibility for the Commission’s external, digital and corporate communications functions. She also oversees the Commission’s voter-facing awareness campaigns, and democratic education work, which ensure voters (and soon-to-be voters) across the UK have the information they need to vote with confidence.
Niki joined the Commission as Head of External Communications in 2018, prior to which she led multi-disciplinary communications teams in the social housing sector.