The Bar Council has appointed Stephen Crowne as its new chief executive, filling the position which has been vacant for two years.

Crowne, who will take up the post on 3 June, has been the senior director of global education at networking equipment company Cisco for the last two years. Prior to this he was chief executive of the British Educational Technology & Communications Agency (BECTA) – the government agency for promoting technology in learning – for five years.

He has also held roles as a senior civil servant in the UK Department for Education and became the first chief executive of the Further Education Development Agency.