Senior Management team

The ASA senior management team is the executive decision-making body responsible for setting the direction for the organisation, overseeing the management of our core responsibilities and ensuring the delivery of our objectives in line with our standards of service. The ASA senior management team is led by Chief Executive, Guy Parker.

Guy Parker
Chief Executive

Guy became Chief Executive of the ASA on 29 June 2009. Previously, Guy was the Deputy Director General and Director of Complaints and Investigations at the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). He oversaw the handling of more than 25,000 complaints about broadcast and non-broadcast advertising received by the ASA each year. He was appointed Deputy Director General in June 2008.

Guy is also an Executive Committee member of the European Advertising Standards Alliance, one-half of the Appeals Panel of the Cinema Advertising Association and a member of the International Chamber of Commerce’s UK Marketing and Advertising Committee. Guy joined the ASA in 1992 and has held a wide range of positions in the organisation.

Guy read Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent.

Miles Lockwood
Director of Complaints and Investigations

Miles joined the ASA in September 2010 and is responsible for leading the complaints and investigations teams, the core function of the ASA, who dealt with over 28,000 complaints last year. He studied History at the University of Nottingham and then obtained two post graduate certifications in Law at Nottingham Law School. Qualifying as a solicitor in 1998, he worked in commercial legal practice and specialised in general litigation and dispute resolution matters. In 2003, Miles joined the Law Society as Customer Services Manager for their consumer complaints handling service, where he led large teams of legally qualified caseworkers investigating public complaints against solicitors. Between 2009 and 2010 he held senior management positions at the Law Society itself, where he was responsible for the development, launch and delivery of a number of services that have driven up complaints handling and compliance standards across the legal profession.

Shahriar Coupal
Director of Advertising Policy and Practice and CAP Secretary

Shahriar studied Politics at the University of Kent at Canterbury and Economics at Birkbeck. He has worked in the public and private sector and spent two years travelling around the world. He joined the ASA from Ofcom in 2005, when the ASA took on responsibility for regulating broadcast advertising. He was previously Manager of the CAP and BCAP Code Policy team where he played a central role coordinating an unprecedented review of the UK Advertising Codes. Shahriar became Director of Advertising Policy Practice and CAP Secretary in July 2009.

Lynsay Taffe
Director of Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs

Lynsay became the Director of Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs in April 2011. She has extensive experience of press, policy and public affairs. She joined the ASA in 2004 as Policy and Public Affairs Advisor and was subsequently promoted to Communications and Policy Manager where she managed the organisation’s media and stakeholder relations activity.

As part of senior management, Lynsay oversees a communications, marketing and public affairs team of seven responsible for promoting advertising self-regulation. Prior to joining the ASA Lynsay spent five years as a consultant at Portcullis Public Affairs. 

Trevor Ellis
Director of Corporate Services

Trevor joined the ASA in August 2010 and oversees the ASA’s finance, systems and HR functions. He is responsible for managing the ASA’s budget as well ensuring the organisation has the tools and support to function effectively. Trevor’s background is in project management and strategic financial business planning. He has experience working in the not-for-profit sector here in the UK and in Canada. Trevor has a degree in Chemistry from the University of Western Ontario as well as a post-graduate diploma in Information Systems and a Masters of Business Administration.