Dame Barbara Mills has worked on some of the most high-profile fraud cases in recent history, battled with bureaucracy at the Inland Revenue and led the Crown Prosecution Service. She has never been scared of a challenge during her distinguished career and her latest job, involving a shake-up of auditing regulation, is no exception.

What's happened?

Dame Barbara was last week appointed chair of the Professional Oversight Board, the unit responsible for UK audit regulation within the Financial Reporting Council, the UK’s regulator for corporate governance and reporting. She replaces Sir John Bourn, who earlier this year announced that he would step down from the role after serving more than two full terms.

What happens next?

Dame Barbara will become chair of POB on 1 October. Sir John will continue to act as an adviser to the FRC.

Her first big test will be overseeing a change in the way audit firms are inspected. Later this year the FRC’s Audit Inspection Unit will publish ‘high-level reports’ on the audit firms.

Some of the big accounting firms raised concerns that inspection reforms could lead to their clients being identified and lead to a ‘feeding frenzy’ of requests for more detailed information on the AIU’s private reports. However, the AIU has reassured firms that client confidentiality won’t be breached under the new inspection regime.

Dame Barbara’s glittering CV includes being the first female Director of Public Prosecutions, director of the Serious Fraud Office, and latterly Adjudicator for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. She has dealt with several financial fraud cases, including BCCI and Guinness.

Career low points include resigning as head of the Crown Prosecution Service amid criticism over the service’s effectiveness.

She has also had an uphill struggle as adjudicator for HMRC when dealing with thousands of public complaints about the Revenue’s unwieldy and complicated tax credit system.

However, former colleagues reckon Dame Barbara has the right experience and personality ­ a combination of charm and steel — to steer the POB through a challenging period.

Chris Dickson, executive counsel of the JDS, the accounting regulator, who worked with Dame Barbara at the SFO, described her as ‘charming and open minded’.

‘What I liked about her was that she had an open door policy and was happy to talk to anyone,’ he told Accountancy Age. ‘She was very informal but we always knew she was in charge.’