Colette Bowe was yesterday named as the next chairman of Ofcom, the communications regulator, taking on the £200,000, three-day-a-week job in succession to Lord Currie of Marylebone.

The 62-year-old is best known for her role in the Westland affair in 1986. As head of press at the Department of Trade and Industry, she refused to reveal whether she had leaked secret documents at the behest of Leon Brittan, the Secretary of State. The documents undermined Michael Heseltine, then Defence Secretary, who was at loggerheads with Brittan over the sale of the company. Heseltine and Brittan subsequently resigned.

Her experience of the media and communications comprises her time as a press officer, coupled with stints at the old Independent Broadcasting Authority and four years chairing Ofcom's consumer panel, which represented viewers and consumers to the regulatory body.

Lord Burns, the chairman of Abbey, and a long-standing friend, said that Ms Bowe made up for limited sectoral expertise with “a clear understanding of the role of the chairman and how to work with the chief executive” coupled with “plenty of regulatory experience from the financial services sector”.

A year after the Westland crisis, Bowe left government service and spent her career largely in regulation, at one time running the Personal Investment Authority.

Today, she sits on the boards of AXA Framlington, Morgan Stanley International, Electra Private Equity and London and Continental Railways, and is chairman of Queen Mary college, part of London University.

She will take over early next year, with Lord Currie, who set up Ofcom from scratch six years ago, leaving sometime before Easter. The departing chairman has agreed that he will not join the board, or be employed by any of the companies that is regulated by Ofcom for six months after he leaves.

However, a loophole in the contract does allow him to work for BT, ITV or BSkyB on the understanding that he obtains the “prior consent” of the board of Ofcom within the six months.

Lord Currie also remains as chairman of Trillium Investment Partners, a property investment fund, and is an adviser to Unisys, the computer group. He is also a member of the Dubai Financial Services Authority.

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