SFO's chief executive quits suddenly Phillippa Williamson, chief executive of the Serious Fraud Office, has stepped down unexpectedly, only days before its director is also due to leave. Ms Williamson, who joined the SFO in 2008, was responsible for the day-to-day running of the agency, while Richard Alderman, its director, took charge of strategy. Mr Alderman, who completes his four-year tenure on Friday, will be succeeded by David Green QC . According to an SFO spokesman, the chief executive left the agency this week and may not be replaced. "It has been a privilege to lead the SFO through a period of exceptional change during challenging times," Ms Williamson said in a statement. Ms Williamson was paid £125,000 in her role plus £27,600 in "benefits in kind" for travel and hotel costs associated with her long-distance commute to London from her home in northern England. She worked two days a week from home. Ms Williamson and Mr Alderman leave behind an agency with increased powers - inherited when the Bribery Act came into force last July - and a dwindling budget. The agency is also suffering from low morale. Last year an SFO staff survey reported that only 13 per cent of those interviewed believed that "the actions of senior managers are consistent with the SFO's values." Mr Alderman's hired Ms Williamson after working with her at Revenue & Customs and it had been expected that she would continue in her current position for at least a few months into Mr Green's tenure. "She was the first non-lawyer and non-investigator at the SFO and she took on a difficult role at a time when significant change was required," said Kathleen Harris, a former SFO official now at Arnold & Porter. Her departure . . . allows the new director to create his own change at the top. The SFO is currently the subject of an unprecedented independent review of its operations by the Crown Prosecution Service's inspectorate, announced weeks after the SFO had to apologise for the way in which it drafted arrest warrants for Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz, the property development brothers, in connection with an investigation into an Icelandic bank that collapsed in 2008. The SFO's actions in relation to the arrest warrants are also the subject of a judicial review. The inspection has renewed concerns within the SFO that it might be incorporated into a larger crime agency. This suggestion contributed to a string of high-level departures last year before the Home Office rowed back on the idea.