Former Amazon exec appointed as boss of UK's competition watchdog

Interim appointment after former head booted out for not being 'sufficiently focused on growth'

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has a new chair after the sudden departure of the previous incumbent.

... this is not about succession planning and far more a reaction to current events. His background is also unashamedly commercial...

Former Amazon boss Doug Gurr has become interim chair of the watchdog after Marcus Bokkerink exited the role, having led the CMA since 2022.

Sources say he was pushed out, with the FT quoting a government insider as saying Bokkerink was considered to be not "sufficiently focused on growth."

Gurr is currently the Director of the Natural History Museum and will fill the role while a permanent appointee is sought. Readers may remember he was also, somewhat controversially given his role at Amazon, picked for the selection panel to choose the government's chief digital officer

Bokkerink's resignation comes as the UK government seeks ways to kickstart a stalling economy. The departure, after two years in the post, came weeks after the UK's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, the chancellor and business secretary, wrote to the UK's regulators to ask for ideas to boost economic growth.

A shot was fired across the bows of the CMA in October 2024, as Starmer promised to make the regulator more focused on helping out the financial health of the country.

Fancy that! A CMA cloud market decision is about to appear

The timing of Bokkerink's department is unfortunate. The CMA is expected to announce a provisional decision as part of its cloud services market investigation in the coming days, which the cloud giants are very interested in. It also has an open investigation into Google's search and advertising services and another into mobile browsers and cloud gaming.

Nicky Stewart, Senior Advisor to the Open Cloud Coalition, a lobby an advocacy group with Google Cloud as a member, called on the regulator "to stay the course and take decisive action to create a fairer, more competitive cloud market that benefits businesses, consumers, and the wider digital economy."

Google has repeatedly critisized Microsoft's software practices, calling them a "tax" on governments and businesses running Microsoft software outside of the Azure public cloud.

Alex Haffner, a competition partner at Fladgate, noted the timing of the departure and appointment, saying: "The announcement of the new Chair of the CMA cannot be pure coincidence, coming as it does at the same time as the UK Government is banging the drum for its growth agenda and calling regulators to account for their own policies on stimulating growth.

"Mr Gurr has been appointed on an interim basis suggesting this is not about succession planning and far more a reaction to current events. His background is also unashamedly commercial as opposed to the consulting one of his predecessor."

Haffner questioned how the appointment might translate to the CMA's approach to enforcement.

"Recent signs are that it has taken heed of criticism of previous decisions and is perhaps more willing to be flexible – the recent Vodafone / Three clearance decision being a case in point.

"However, the new Chair also takes on the role at a time when the CMA has taken on significant new powers under the Digital Markets Competition and Consumer Act, particularly in relation to its oversight of big tech, meaning the CMA will likely become more activist, albeit giving considerable attention as to how to enforce in a way which best stimulates competition and therefore economic growth."

Gurr is not the only captain of industry the government has ushered in. Clare Barclay, the-then CEO of Microsoft UK, was appointed chair of the government's new Industrial Strategy Advisory Council in October last year. The unit is said to offer the government expert advice in partnership with business, unions, and other groups from across the UK.

Microsoft moved Barclay to an EMEA role earlier this month, due to the potential conflict of interest.®