South East of England

Kako supports Regal Cineworld Group as Deputy Company Secretary, and leads the UK and ROW governance functions, several group committees, and coordinates key projects and transactions, including Chapter 11 and restructuring transactions. Voted 2024 Future Leader at the Governance Hot 100 awards, Kako also leads the subsidiary governance function at Cineworld while assisting the board in its day-to-day operations. He became a chartered governance professional as well as earned his LLM in 2021. He has collaborated with several international organisations, including the UN, to organise 20 international conferences in 14 countries to promote good corporate governance, the SDGs, and youth & young professionals’ participation in peace, education, gender equality, and climate action projects.

Alex works for National Grid as their Assistant Company Secretary. He supports all aspects of their "PLC Governance" workstream, including share registration, employee share schemes, the AGM, the Annual Report, and the Group's dividend cycles. Earlier this year, Alex was part of the team that delivered a £7bn Rights Issue as part of a capital raise to fund critical energy infrastructure.

Alex qualified in 2019 as a Chartered Secretary, having completed his LLM at the University of Portsmouth, and he volunteers his time as a mentor for students currently undertaking the course. He went on to study for his Tapestry Certificate in Employee Share Plans and was recognised in the 2020 Governance Hot 100: Rising Star Category. His previous roles included positions at Smith & Nephew plc and Cohort plc, both of which encompassed secretary duties to various boards and committees and provided exposure to their multinational subsidiaries.

Emma is the Director of Company Secretarial Services at Foresight Group, a FTSE250 Investment Manager and was responsible for establishing Foresight’s company secretarial team in 2018. She now provides company secretarial support to the Group Board and Committees and oversees the company secretarial services across listed and private funds as well at the subsidiary governance of c.300 entities.

Emma is the President of the Women’s Chartered Governance Association and was a member of the judging panel for the 2024 CGI Awards.

Named “The One To Watch” at the 2024 CGI Awards, James was described by judges as “an established subject matter expert who brings innovation to the role.” James joined Law Debenture’s Corporate Secretarial Services team in October 2022 as a trainee, and is now an Assistant Manager on secondment to a global Financial Services group, where he provides governance support to the general counsel and Board Risk Committee.

From a young age, James’ “first career” was as a violinist and pianist, with performances throughout the UK and Europe. Completing degrees in Music at the University of Cambridge the Royal Academy of Music, James now draws on his orchestral background to bring harmony to complex organisational structures. James looks forward to continuing his CoSec development through the CGI Graduate Membership Programme, following success in two exams to date.