Stephen is a Senior Legal Director at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) with responsibility for the legal oversight of the CMA’s cartels and consumer protection work. Before taking up his current position in April 2018 Stephen headed the CMA’s Cartels and Criminal Group, having joined the CMA from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) when the latter’s competition functions passed to the CMA in 2014. Stephen joined the OFT in 1998 and held a number of positions in the OFT’s Legal Division and Cartels and Criminal Enforcement Group before becoming head of that group in April 2013, as well as spending two-and-a-half years on secondment to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition (2002-2004). Before joining the OFT Stephen was a lawyer in private practice in the City.