New members appointed to enlarged ASA Council

24 October 2004

New ASA Council Members

The ASA has enlisted the help of four new Council members as it takes on its broadcast advertising responsibilities. 

Within the enlarged Council, separate panels of 12 members will judge broadcast and non-broadcast complaints, with some Council members sitting on both panels. Three of the new appointments are members of the public who applied for the posts, which were publicly advertised.  The fourth new member, Nigel Walmsley, brings to the role extensive experience of the advertising industry.

The four new Council members are:

Neil Watts - a secondary school head teacher from Suffolk, will work on both ASA councils considering complaints about both broadcast and non-broadcast advertising. He is the Chair of the Education Committee for the Association of Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus, and is familiar with the ASA’s educational material that he uses to teach in citizenship classes.

Alison Goodman, who works for HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust, will join the ASA Broadcast council. She has a strong background in voluntary and charity work.

Dr Chitra Bharucha, consultant haematologist, will also join the ASA Broadcast council bringing to the role her extensive experience of serving on public and voluntary committees. In the past, she was a member on the committee who helped revise the ITC Advertising Standard Code and has sat on the BBC Northern Ireland Broadcasting Council. Currently she is an Associate member of the General Medical Council and chairs the Advisory Committee on Animal Feedingstuffs for the Food Standards Agency. 

The ASA Chairman has also appointed Nigel Walmsley, chairman of the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB), to the broadcast council.  He has a wealth of  experience in the industry, having been chairman and chief executive of Cartlon Television, managing director of Capital Radio and marketing director at the Post Office.