Laura Carstensen (appointed in 2005) is a senior lawyer with extensive experience of EU and UK competition law practice including as a partner in the City law firm Slaughter and May (1994–2004). She is co-founder and director of two online mail order businesses, Blue Banyan Ltd and Hortica. She is a Member of the Cooperation & Competition Panel for NHS Funded Services, a Non-Executive Director of the Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust Hospital and Chester Renaissance. She is also a Governor of London Metropolitan University, Chairman of the Council of The Women's Library and a Trustee of National Museums Liverpool. She previously held the position of Deputy Chairman of the Competition Commission until December 2011 and was formerly a non-executive board member of the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel (Cabinet Office) until June 2011.