Alasdair Smith has been an Inquiry Chair at the CMA since 2014, having previously since 2012 been a Deputy Chair of the Competition Commission. He was previously Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex and was Vice-Chancellor of the University from 1998 to 2007. His academic work focuses on the effects of international trade on competition, growth and the distribution of income; and he also has interests in the economics of public sector pensions and higher education. He has written extensively on the effects of the single European market and EU enlargement on competition. He was chair of the 1994 Group of universities (2001 to 2005), and subsequently chair of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (2006-7). He is a member of the Determinations Panel of the Pensions Regulator. He was a member of the Pay Review Bodies for the Prison Service (2001-4), for doctors and dentists (2007-10), for the Armed Forces (chair 2010-13) and for Senior Salaries (2010-13). He was a member of the expert advisory group to Lord Hutton’s Independent Public Service Pensions Commission (2011).