The Regulatory Authority of Bermuda’s new chief executive officer has an extensive background in the telecommunications industry in Britain, and also worked as a regulatory manager for a subsidiary of the power company National Grid.

Matthew Copeland was appointed CEO at the beginning of March. Details of his background have now been posted on the RAB’s website.

He is the third CEO of the island’s telecoms watchdog organisation, which was created in 2013 to oversee the Bermuda’s telecommunications sector.

Mr Copeland is a former director of strategic and regulatory affairs at Telewest/Virgin Media, and was a senior member of the management team that merged Telewest and NTL, creating a cable broadband and TV network covering 14.5 million homes in Britain.

During the past eight years he worked as a telecommunications regulatory and strategic adviser, with clients that included 4G operators Liberty Global and Sky.

Mr Copeland also worked with Orange UK, now EE, one of Europe’s largest mobile networks, and as regulatory manager for Energis, a telecommunications company created by a demerger from Britain’s main electricity transmission company the National Grid.

The RAB website notes that Mr Copeland has experience dealing with UK regulators, government and the European Commission on regulatory issues in the telecommunications sphere.

The Authority’s two previous CEOs were Philip Micallef and Robert Watson. Mr Micallef led the organisation for almost two years between 2013 and late 2014, before leaving for personal reasons. While Mr Watson took the top role in January 2015 but resigned, also for personal reasons, last September.

Kyle Masters twice acted as interim CEO, once following Mr Micallef’s departure and again when Mr Watson stepped down. Mr Masters was the RAB’s legal and regulatory adviser, but left the Authority earlier this year.

The Authority’s responsibilities are set to increase in the near future with the transfer of regulation and oversight of the energy sector from the Ministry of Economic Development and the Energy Commission to the RAB.