General Dental Council announces new Chief Executive and Registrar

The General Dental Council (GDC) has announced that Tom Whiting has been appointed as its new Chief Executive Officer and Registrar and will take up his position in the next three months.

Tom joins the GDC from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) where he is Acting Director General having been Deputy Director General since 2019.

At the IOPC, Tom was committed to building effective relationships internally and externally and to creating a motivated workforce dedicated to improving public trust and confidence in policing.

Throughout his career, Tom’s focus on equality, diversity and inclusion stands out, both in ensuring that service delivery and regulatory processes are fair and in building an inclusive workplace and culture.

Prior to the IOPC, Tom spent fourteen years in local government at Harrow Council, most recently as their Interim Chief Executive, where he was responsible for public health, public protection services safeguarding children and adults and a range of regulatory services including environmental health, trading standards, planning and building control. For many years he was responsible for finance, people and legal and governance services.

Lord Toby Harris, GDC Chair, said:

“I am very pleased to welcome Tom as the GDC’s new Chief Executive Officer. He brings the skills, qualities and experience needed to help us further develop trust and high performance as well as enhancing equality, diversity, and inclusion for staff and in our regulatory processes.

“Tom will join the GDC at an exciting time, as we remain focused on our performance, modernise how we register dental professionals who qualify abroad and develop our corporate strategy for 2026-2028.

“One of Tom’s priorities will be to build and maintain the trust of the public and the professions, as well as key external stakeholders across the four nations, and I am looking forward to working with him to do so.”

On accepting his appointment, Tom Whiting said:

“I am really pleased to join the GDC at such a pivotal time and look forward to meeting staff, dental professionals and external stakeholders to understand their views and priorities. The dental sector and the public face many challenges and I want to work together with all stakeholders to tackle our shared issues and make progress on shared goals.

“From my time in different public sector bodies, I understand the need to balance constraints with opportunities, and to build trust and confidence through transparency, open communication and a commitment to learning. I am hugely excited about doing so in the GDC and look forward to joining very soon.”