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Nominet sacks freshly-hired exec implicated in hospital 'cover-up' scandal

'Public scrutiny has made her role here impossible'

Nominet has sacked its chief commercial officer Jill Finney after just a few months in the post as an alleged cover-up about mother and baby deaths in the National Health Service began to unravel.

Finney, who had been deputy chief at health watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC), joined the the UK's domain name registry in March this year on a salary understood to be more than £100,000.

She was brought in to build on Nominet's "strengths" to manage "route-to-market, including relationships with channel partners" and to oversee marketing and communication.

Finney has already been removed from Nominet's "Executive" webpage, but the details can still be found in Google's cache.

The Oxford-based company said of her departure:

The increasing public scrutiny over our CCO’s former role at CQC has made it impossible for her to continue with her role and responsibilities at Nominet.

With regret, we felt it necessary to terminate Jill Finney’s employment with immediate effect. Ms Finney will be paid one month’s salary in lieu of notice.

It has been reported that Finney - while deputy chief exec at CQC - was present at a meeting in March 2012 when she is alleged to have ordered a subordinate to delete an internal report that criticised the health regulator's failure to take action against the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust where mothers and babies died due to poor care.

Initially, the names of Finney and others involved in the CQC meeting - who have been accused of a cover-up - were redacted by the watchdog, which cited data protection concerns. But details of the individuals said to be involved in the scandal were revealed in the national press on Thursday, following parliamentary pressure to put the names in the public domain.

Earlier this year, Nominet had created a new role by appointing Finney as CCO of the company. The outfit's boss Lesley Cowley said at the time that the erstwhile health watchdog deputy would help Nominet "adapt to an increasingly competitive market". ®

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