2024 CGIUKI Annual Conference

Neil Alderton is a Partner at Lintstock with over a decade’s experience of leading Board Reviews for listed, private and not-for-profit organisations internationally. He is responsible for the development of the Lintstock Governance Index, a data analytics tool which drives the firm’s peer comparisons and research arm. Masters in Engineering, Cambridge University.

Marla has over 20 years of experience in corporate secretarial and governance roles in a variety of industries such as Financial Services with JPMorgan Chase to Professional Services at Equiniti David Venus, a leading provider of CoSec and governance services, where she managed a portfolio of clients across different sectors.  She has also set up and ran her own CoSec business and did a few interim roles to review current corporate governance process and procedures and bringing them up to date with current best practices and introduced technology solutions to enhance board effectiveness and efficiency.

Currently Marla is working in an in-house role at GLP Capital Partners, a private equity firm and is responsible for just over 600 UK and European entities.  GLP is a global owner, developer and operator of logistics real estate, digital infrastructure and renewable energy.

Marla was also a former president of the AWCS (Association of Women's Chartered Secretary) from 2015 to 2017. A not-for-profit organisation, supporting the personal and professional development of Women Chartered governance professionals for over 100 years.  The AWCS has now been renamed to WCGA (Women's Chartered Governance Association).

Kate Barclay joined Lintstock in 2023 from boutique advisory firm Fidelio, where she was part of their Board Review practice. Kate is responsible for scoping Lintstock’s Board Reviews in close collaboration with Chairs and Company Secretaries, and regularly presents research on governance trends internationally. BA in History, Oxford University.

Chloe is currently at Kingfisher plc – owner of B&Q and Screwfix among other DIY brands – where she joined in January 2019 and was appointed Group Company Secretary in December 2021. Chloe started her company secretarial career at PWC in both London and Jersey and has since held a number of company secretarial roles at leading FTSE 100 companies, including BG Group, Centrica, Intercontinental Hotels Group and Electrocomponents. Most recently, Chloe was Group Company Secretary of Sophos Group plc a FTSE 250 company specialising in security software and hardware.

Chloe is a Fellow of the Corporate Governance Institute and has also recently joined the Institute’s Accreditation Panel for Board Performance Reviewers.

Justine has held various board, executive and company secretary appointments throughout her international career. Justine started her company secretarial career in-house in the  UK Nuclear & Property sectors, before entering the world of professional services.

Internationally, Justine has held a number of senior roles, more lately Chief Executive and Global Head of Client Services for an International Law Firm leading a team providing corporate, trust, regulatory and accounting services in the UK, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Since returning to the UK, Justine formed her own consultancy firm, Blakesley Consulting, providing regulatory advisory services to  international clients.

Justine is currently the Company Secretary for Rolls-Royce SMR.

Justine is an active Fellow of the Corporate Governance Institute and Institute of Directors.

Sandro is currently President of the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors.
Sandro Boeri is also the founder of Risk Audit Professional Development with a career spanning over forty years in financial services corporate governance in the City of London and internationally.
His main area of specialism is in the field of internal audit where after serving his apprenticeship during six years at Kleinwort Benson he went on to run the audit functions at Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank in London, Credit Agricole, Sumitomo and the Gerrard Group.
Sandro is a major thought leader on culture in financial services as well as regulation in the fields of wholesale financial services.
Sandro is a prominent speaker on subjects ranging from corporate governance to motivation in the workplace.

Professor Braganza is Dean, Brunel Business School and holds the Chair in Business Transformation. He is the Director of Brunel’s Research Centre for AI and AI Lab. The Centre is truly interdisciplinary with members drawn from the Engineering, Computer Science, Business School, Law, Arts, Health and Life Sciences. He is a regular contributor to AI policy developments, including the All-Party Parliamentary Group for AI. He has extensive research experience in the interplay of change and technology management, currently focused on the impact of artificial intelligence technologies in the boardroom and on the future of work, organisations and business models. The extent to which organisations change their strategy, practices, risk management, and culture in response to public perceptions of the use of AI technologies and algorithmic decision making is a significant issue. Professor Braganza used his interdisciplinary experience to design and launch a cross-cutting MSc AI Strategy.

Professor Braganza has held numerous leadership roles within Brunel University London and, before that, at the Cranfield School of Management. He is an advisor to boards of public and private sector organisations.

Mark has set up and is leading an AI Centre of Excellence for Informa, a FTSE100 business. His focus is on defining & owning the AI vision, strategy & roadmap, with continual alignment with business goals mapped to customer needs. Prior to taking on the CAIO role Mark was the Chief Product & Technology Officer for Informa Tech. Before joining Informa, Mark ran a digital product consultancy, which helped some of the best known brands in the world develop sustainable new revenue models through monetising content and creating more meaningful and rewarding experiences for customers. Mark is also a board advisor to multiple startups spanning different sectors.

Natasha is the founder and Director of Diverse Matters. She is responsible for the overall running of the company and for the design and delivery of a range of diversity and inclusion solutions for clients across the voluntary, public, third and private sectors.

Natasha has over 25 years’ experience of working within the diversity and inclusion field, having previously been the Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for Victim Support and Head of Development for Equal Approach (Now EA Inclusion) in addition to experience working with the black and minority ethnic community, disabled community, LGBT+ community and young people.

Through these experiences, Natasha has developed and delivered a wide range of diversity and inclusion programmes for companies nationally, focusing on unconscious bias, disability/mental health and embedding diversity and inclusion, supporting diverse communities, race inclusion and LGBT+ training.

Jackie is a proactive individual with a proven track record as a sport practitioner, working in policy, sport development and delivery, in a range of professional settings, both at a local and national level. She is passionate about excellence and using the power of sport to change lives and sees great governance as being the key to improving organisational performance, unlocking new opportunities and reducing risk.

Jackie has a broad governance background – from being a director and trustee, advising boards as a consultant and reporting to Boards as the CEO. She has years of experience that includes working at a policy level (within Sport England and on the boards of Sport Northern Ireland, Street Games UK and Coaching UK) as well as supporting grass roots community organisations.

A flavour of her governance work has included undertaking board evaluations, exploring new governance structures, formalising relationships between different bodies, supporting the integration of services from one organisation to another, strategy development and project management of large grant programmes. Her client list includes: British Cycling, British Fencing, Sport England, Parkwood Leisure, Snowsport England, the RFU, Active Lancashire and the Commonwealth Games Federation. Prior to setting up her own business in 2019, Jackie was at the helm of Plas y Brenin, the iconic National Outdoor Centre based in Snowdonia, driving a four-year transformation programme to reposition the business to ensure its long-term future.

Chris is a CGI accredited board reviewer and principal at Halex Consulting, a leading boutique governance consultancy specialising in independent board evaluations and risk management advisory services. He is also a co-founder and Chair of the Risk Coalition, a not-for-profit, risk management think tank that aims to improve the effectiveness of risk management practice in the UK and globally.

Chris is the principal author of the Risk Coalition’s internationally acclaimed, ‘Raising the Bar’ leading practice guidance for board risk committees. He also Chairs the Risk Coalition’s Risk Committee Chairs and CROs forums, joint Risk Coalition/ISACA Tech Risk SIG and Halex Consulting’s own CoSec Forum for company secretaries and governance professionals.

Chris speaks regularly on risk and governance-related topics.

Carmelina joined RS Group PLC (previously Electrocomponents PLC) as a trainee and 8 years after joining, was appointed as Company Secretary. Carmelina is Company Secretary at FTSE250 Workspace Group PLC working with the Board and its Nominations, Remuneration, Audit and ESG Committees. She monitors compliance with procedures and provides advice on governance matters. At the direction of the Chair, she is responsible for making sure the Board receives accurate, timely and relevant information. She also co-ordinates the induction of new Board members and the provision of ongoing training and development of the Board. Carmelina’s other responsibilities include corporate governance, compliance with legislation and the administration of share schemes.

Samira is an experienced Chartered Governance professional with extensive experience in listed and professional services across various industries, including insurance, finance, and FMCG. She founded The Black Governance Professionals Network, which is dedicated to supporting and advancing Black professionals in governance roles by fostering a community for networking, mentorship, and professional development within the governance sector.

In 2018, Samira was nominated as One to Watch by the Chartered Governance Institute. She has also been recognised as a winner in the Governance Hot 100 for the Social Impact Category in 2020 and as a Future Leader in both 2022 and 2023.

Dan is a Director at PwC UK, leading the firm's audit work and relationships for charities, higher education institutions and the public sector nationally. He is a member of PwC's Government and Health Industries leadership team. He also leads the firm's thought leadership for the charity sector as well as the Charities Award and Public Sector Award (in association with the National Audit Office) as part of the PwC Building Public Trust Awards.

Dan is Chair of the ICAEW Charity Committee, a member of the Charities SORP Committee and a member of the CIPFA Charities and Public Benefit Entities Forum. He is also a member of the ICAEW Public Sector Advisory Group.

Chelsea is a Chartered Company Secretary with extensive experience in the professional services sector providing governance and entity management services. At LawDeb she leads a team of 20 company secretaries who provide a wide range of entity management, subsidiary governance and advisory services to the UK entities of our global clients. Chelsea is passionate about building relationships and delivering a high level of service through building strong relationships with clients and colleagues. She has a particular interest in improving processes and procedures, implementing technology to achieve this where possible. Before joining LawDeb, Chelsea gained valuable experience as part of the company secretarial within a global law firm focused on serving the technology & innovation, energy & infrastructure, and finance sectors. During this time she gained exposure to supporting on large transactions and deals, and facilitated the entity management of a diverse portfolio.

Lyn is a qualified Chartered Secretary with over 35 years’ experience in the financial services sector, as well as extensive experience in the provision of a full company secretary service to the Board including advising on all corporate governance matters. Lyn has run her own consultancy company in the past and worked for Cobham plc for 10 years until 31 May 2019 and is Company Secretary and Head of the Governance, Risk and Compliance Team at Wincanton plc, until very recently, a FTSE250 company listed on the London Stock Exchange. Wincanton is a leading supply chain partner for British business.

Sharon has worked in the financial services and corporate sectors and in the last two decades run her own businesses providing corporate foreign exchange risk management and corporate governance services and solutions.

Sharon’s experience in risk management at the Board level of more than 250 major, and often worldwide, corporates and her knowledge of regulations, international finance, corporate governance, financial markets and running her own businesses have together provided Sharon with an ability to work with Boards on more than one level – strategic, risk, governance and management.

Oliver Cummings is CEO of Nurole (nurole.com), the board search specialist and market-leader, bringing science to the art of board hiring. Ranked in the FT1000 fastest growing companies in Europe with 50,000+ members globally and c. 1,000 board placements per year, Nurole is a digital disruptor helping organisations find high impact Chairs, independent directors, advisory board members and trustees. Nurole also provides an online community for those on boards or who are board-ready to network, learn and support one another.

Prior to Nurole, Oliver spent over a decade working as a private equity investor, most recently as the youngest ever partner at BXR Partners and before that at Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs. Oliver is a board advisor at Thomas’s London Day Schools, a privately-owned schools group in London.

Oliver hosts "Enter the Boardroom with Nurole", a podcast where CEOs, Founders, Chairs, Non-Executive Directors, Advisors and Trustees share their advice on creating highly effective boards.

A former General Counsel and Chartered Company Secretary Patrick is a Director in LawDeb's Corporate Secretarial Services business. He has a particular focus on delivering Board and Committee governance to clients within listed financial services and other regulated sectors. Patrick offers a broad range of listed, regulated and compliance advisory capabilities which benefits those dealing with increasingly complex governance challenges and regulatory engagement, including, for example, in relation to Skilled Person (s.166) Reviews and Information Requests. His technical skills, market knowledge and experience help to identify innovative solutions that will have a material impact for our clients. Patrick has over 20 years’ experience within investment banking, trading, clearing, financial infrastructure institutions, technology, UK and US listed (FTSE250/NYSE) and fintech/blockchain start-up environments.

Jazz Dhoofer specialises in digital consulting and is responsible for helping clients make better use of technology to support entity governance and compliance activities within their organisations.

Marcus Dowding is an ACIS qualified governance professional and Solicitor with over 25 years’ experience, most recently within GSK plc’s Corporate Secretariat team. Previously, Marcus has held senior legal and company secretary roles at leading corporate insurance broker and advisory firm Willis Towers Watson; top-ten FTSE 100 mining company, Rio Tinto; City law firm Linklaters; the Crown Prosecution Service; and, for six months, at a small legal practice in the Falkland Islands. In 2019 having been in corporate secretarial roles for the previous five years, Marcus took a year away from corporate work to undertake an MSc in Corporate Governance and qualify as a Chartered Secretary. Returning to the world of work in the middle of the pandemic, Marcus undertook a couple of governance projects under contract roles before commencing his present role in early 2022.

In his current role at leading pharmaceutical company GSK plc, Marcus is part of the management of the Company Secretariat function and leads a team of twelve staff in the UK and US overseeing the Group’s 350 subsidiary entities. He is secretary of ViiV Healthcare Limited, one of the world’s leading providers of HIV medicines, and he is also involved in elements of the listed company’s governance, including as secretary of its Disclosure Committee.

Whilst not unique, Marcus’ career path demonstrates the variety of routes and experience possible when engaging in a career (or part of a career) in governance.

Sara studied law at the University of Cambridge and has spent much of her career working in the media sector for both publishing and television companies and as a writers’ agent.

In recent years she has worked with professional bodies in the built environment and construction sectors as managing director of the Homebuilders Federation and the Royal Town Planning Institute. She was appointed Chief Executive of the Association for Project Management in 2015, which was awarded a royal charter in 2016 and launched its new chartered standard for the profession in 2018.

Sara is an Honorary Fellow of Kingston University, a board member of the Quality Assurance Agency and holds non-executive directorships in the private and charity sectors.

Mark Easton, the BBC News Home Editor, is a distinguished broadcaster and author, making regular appearances across television, radio, and online platforms. His most recent book, 'Islands: Searching for Truth on the Shoreline,' was published in 2022, adding to his list of accomplishments.

Mark has been recognized with multiple awards for his outstanding television documentaries and news reports, including prestigious Royal Statistical Society awards for statistical excellence in 2009 and 2010. Notably, his BBC blog was a finalist at the internationally acclaimed Online Journalism Awards in San Francisco.

In his role, Mark offers expert analysis and a comprehensive perspective on the complex issues and narratives shaping contemporary Britain. He diligently records the consequences of swift demographic, technological, economic, and global transformations.

Mark is also a well-regarded facilitator and speaker in the housing sector, having presented the enlightening Radio 4 program, 'Housing: Where Will We Live?'.

Before assuming his current role, Mark held pivotal positions as the Home and Social Affairs Editor at Channel 4 Television and as the Political Editor at Channel 5 television.

Andrew retired in July 2023 as Director of Company Secretarial at Legal & General after 36 years. During his Legal & General career, Andrew held a number of senior Group and Operational company secretarial roles. Andrew is a member of the CGI's Co Sec forum and Chairs their Corporate Governance Working Group. Andrew is a fellow of the CGI and Institute of Directors and member of the Chartered Management Institute.

Alia Fazal is Head of Corporate Governance at BP plc, one of the UK’s largest listed companies. She leads a highly regarded team of company secretaries, shortlisted for ‘Team of the Year’ at the 2022 Chartered Governance Institute’s (CGI) annual awards.

In addition, Alia is one of just three Public Company Representative members of the Oversight Committee for the Best Practice Principles relating to the proxy voting advisory and research industry. Alia is also a member of the CGI Company Secretaries’ Forum, the representative body for senior governance professionals in the UK and Ireland. She participates in the CGI’s rotating Board Performance Review Accreditation Panel and was invited to join the judging panel for the CGI’s annual awards celebrating excellence in governance.

Starting her career on the graduate training programme at EY in 2003, Alia qualified as a Chartered Company Secretary before moving in-house. Over the past 20 years, Alia has built on this foundation with experience working at multiple FTSE 100 companies across a range of sectors including financial services, real estate, retail and construction. She has a deep understanding of enhancing operational effectiveness, building high performing teams, and the delivery of governance best practice.

Recognised in the Governance Hot100 list on two separate occasions, Alia was named as a ‘Governance Trailblazer’ in 2022 and as an ‘Inspirational Manager’ in 2024. Alia is a regular speaker at governance events including at the International Corporate Governance Network’s London conference in 2023. Alia has also participated in briefings and roundtables with the UK Parliamentary Liaison Groups (formerly the All Party Parliamentary Groups) for ESG and for Corporate Governance. In addition, Alia is active with the GC100, the group representing general counsels and company secretaries of FTSE 100 companies. In particular, she has supported on their responses to government consultations on regulatory and policy reform.

Alia is a fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute. She holds a law degree from Essex University and completed the Legal Practice Course in London.

Ben has 20+ years of financial services experience, having worked in the UK, Cayman Islands, and Canada. He has worked with clients of all sizes and industries, significantly with corporates, funds, and high net worth individuals. Ben also has a history of working with entrepreneurs who need administrative assistance for their business, allowing the business to focus on its core strengths. Ben has expertise in the fields of accounting/finance, planning/budgeting, operations, M&A, and capital transactions as well as a track record of operational and financial improvement. Ben also holds multiple directorships for SPVs managed by TMF.

A 30 year qualified lawyer, Rod Findlay is currently General Counsel at Birmingham City Football Club. He has 20 years’ experience in senior executive, chief executive and Board level roles in sport. He has been a non-executive director at each of the Mountain Training Trust, Badminton England and the Ladies Golf Union (LGU), and is credited with leading the legal negotiations with the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and the LGU to merge the two governing bodies in 2016. Rod has previously held legal and governance roles in Rugby League and at each of England Golf, British Cycling and the Commonwealth Games Federation. He lectures on sport law and governance at Northumbria University and was previously the external examiner for the sports law masters at De Montford University as well as a judge of the Chartered Governance Institute’s Annual Awards.

Julia is a Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute and her most recent role was Company Secretary at SEGRO plc (FTSE100). She has over 20 years of wide-ranging experience across FTSE100s and 250s in different industries, including J Sainsbury plc, Currys plc, Halma plc, Centrica plc and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels plc. She has worked and managed projects internationally, working across Europe, with secondments to North America and several countries in Asia.

Julia believes strongly in championing diversity and inclusion initiatives and programmes, and increased representation for East and Southeast Asians, having recently launched the Asian Corporate Governance Network (ACGN). She was also the divisional co-sponsor of diversity and inclusion initiatives in J Sainsbury plc.

She has been recognised as a Governance Hot 100 winner in the Board Influencer and Innovator categories in 2022 and 2023. She holds a BA, LLB, and LLM (Commercial Law) and recently completed her MBA.

Emily Ford is a Policy Adviser at the Chartered Governance Institute, working with government, regulators and stakeholders to promote good governance. Her two priority areas are the role of governance in successful ESG strategies across all sectors, and the effective governance of not-for-profit organisations, incorporating the charity and educational sectors. In her role, she conducts and produces research on sector trends, publishes practical guidance for governance professionals, and engages with government and regulators on key issues.

She has a background in corporate communications, think tanks and third-sector campaigning. She graduated with an MPhil in International Development from the University of Cambridge and a First-class BA in French and German from King’s College London.

Clare Forestier is a professional Event Host. Following a 20+ year career as a BBC journalist, she also uses her skills to help others improve their presentation skills and talk to the media.

Described by her clients as charismatic, no-nonsense and lots of fun, Clare enjoys making the most complex and driest of subjects accessible and entertaining.

Described by her clients as charismatic, no-nonsense and lots of fun, Clare enjoys making the most complex and driest of subjects accessible and entertaining.

She has hosted and moderated a diverse portfolio of events for organisations like the UN, Mitel, KPMG, PwC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, and Accenture, and across many verticals including telecommunications, technology, pharmaceuticals, logistics, FinTech, Cybersecurity, HR and Higher Education.

Deborah Garlick, CEO of the multi-award-winning Henpicked: Menopause in the Workplace and founder of Henpicked.net, has been instrumental in driving menopause awareness and support. Since 2016, her team has supported employers, large and small organisations, public and private sector in the UK and globally.

Her initiatives include The Menopause Friendly Accreditation, advising the BSI, supporting the Equality and Human Rights Committee and organising the Menopause Friendly Employer Awards, now in its third year. Overseeing training for thousands of organisations, she's a leading voice in menopause advocacy, appearing in media and authoring "Menopause: The Change for the Better." Passionate and influential, Deborah champions workplace inclusivity and support for menopausal individuals. She is also the Director and co-founder of Menopause Friendly Australia.

The Menopause Friendly Accreditation is now open in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand, with menopause training available worldwide in 36 languages.

Lucy Glover is a Company Secretary with nearly 20 years of experience in FTSE 100 and AIM listed companies. She has worked for Smiths Group plc since December 2021, as the Deputy Secretary, where she is responsible for plc and subsidiary governance, listed company compliance, and share plans administration. Lucy is Secretary to Smiths Science, Sustainability & Excellence Committee and Audit & Risk Committee, and recently established the ESG Regulation Oversight Group made up of senior stakeholders to oversee the myriad of ESG regulations that will impact Smiths over the coming years.

Before joining Smiths, Lucy worked for J Sainsbury plc, Land Securities Group PLC and Cape plc. She gained her CGI qualification while working at EY and has a degree in International Business and Economics from Aston University. She is currently enrolled on a Business Sustainability Management course at the University of Cambridge.

Krishna is a Director who has worked for KPMG in the UK for over 20 years specialising in marketing and communications. For the last seven years she has focused on inclusion, diversity and equity (IDE) matters at board level for the ‘KPMG Board Leadership Centre’ programme and helped develop ‘KPMG Connect On Board’, a digital platform showcasing diverse candidates for boards roles. Since 2016 Krishna has worked closely with the FTSE Women Leaders Review team (successor to the Hampton-Alexander Review) to improve gender balance in FTSE350 companies, and she is an advisory board member for the Next Generation Non-Executive Director Network. She regularly publishes content and speaks at external events related to IDE matters.

James is Head of Strategy & Innovation within the Nasdaq Governance Solutions team. He has 21 years of experience within corporate governance and has extensive knowledge of regulation, legislation and corporate governance processes, inclusive of emerging cybersecurity and technology trends.

Laura is a Chartered Secretary and Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland. Laura has gained over 20 years’ experience of operating in a variety of Company Secretary roles for FTSE100 and FTSE250 organisations. Her most recent role was Group Company Secretary at Elementis plc (FTSE250). During her career, Laura has gained a wealth of experience in the boardroom and has served as a trusted advisor to boards and executive management teams. She has experience of leadership roles in high profile corporate transactions, risk management, insurance, sustainability and diversity & inclusion. She has been recognised as a Governance HOT100 winner (Board influencer category) and is an active mentor for the Women’s Chartered Governance Association.

Her real passion is to develop high performance company secretarial and governance teams. Laura is founder of The CoSec Coach, a coaching and consultancy business which aims to advance the impact and value of the governance profession by accelerating team expertise and finding practical solutions to overcome challenge.

In addition to the coaching programmes, The CoSec Coach also offers bespoke training, team away days and workshops, project support, consultancy and effectiveness reviews. Laura is also founder and director of The CoSec Recruitment Company, a specialist recruitment agency for company secretaries and governance professionals.

George joined Microsoft in 2020, where he supports key European clients with productivity and engagement initiatives, as well as change management for AI and Copilot adoption. Prior to this role, he worked as a Management Consultant at Deloitte and KPMG, specializing in SAP, and Workday implementations. He also brings valuable line-management experience from his tenure as an HR Director and Senior Manager of Talent.

As a qualified Industrial and Organizational Psychologist, George is dedicated to leveraging research and data to inform strategic leadership decisions. He enjoys traveling to global destinations, exploring new cultures and perspectives. Outside of work, he spends time with his family (his wife of 25 years, their two teenagers, and two cats).

Mark Howorth is the Head of Corporate Governance for St. Anne's Community Services, based in Leeds.

St Anne’s Shelter and Housing Action was founded in response to the growing number of homeless and socially excluded people in Leeds. Before any services were created, homeless people were interviewed, and identified the need for a day centre. The St Anne’s Centre was opened in December 1971. St. Anne’s Community Services, pride themselves on delivering a diverse range of services with the clients and tenants at the heart of everything they do. The organisation has grown to be a housing association and multi-specialist care provider with over 2,000 clients and tenants and 1,600 staff.

Mark has a wide variety of experience in governance across a number of different sectors including professional sports, education, universities and finance. Mark won the Worshipful Company of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators Charitable Trust 2022 prize for the best dissertation.

Mark is Chair of the Board and Trustee of Beyond The Margin, a small charity in Bradford supporting disadvantaged and marginalised people in West Yorkshire.

Mark is also the Chair of the Yorkshire and Humber Branch of the Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland, is a Chartered Company Secretary and a Member of the Institute of Leadership.

Nick is an experienced Chartered Governance Professional (ACG). Having started his governance career at National Grid plc, he is currently Assistant Company Secretary at the LSE and NYSE listed business Haleon plc.

As a student of the Chartered Governance Institute UK&I, Nick chaired the Institute’s UK Student Forum from December 2019 – October 2021.

Joy Johnston is currently Senior Operations and Governance Manager at the Premier League Charitable Fund where she is responsible for driving forwards the governance and operations of the charity to ensure compliance with Charity Commission requirements and to ensure the charity is seen as an example of best practice to the organisations it funds. She also leads on ensuring all the Club Community Organisations in receipt of funding from the charity comply with the Capability Code of Practice (the governance standard and code developed specifically for football club charities to adhere to).

She has 15 years’ experience in sports governance roles and has held non-executive roles in sport and the wider not-for-profit sector. She was previously Head of Governance (Support) at Sport England, a Governance Manager at UK Sport and Head of Governance and Quality Assurance at the English Football League Trust. She is a guest lecturer on sport governance at Birkbeck University of London and was named in the DMJ Governance Hot 100 as a governance trailblazer in 2024.

Keti Khukhunashvili is a Chartered Secretary with extensive experience in the financial services industry. She currently serves as Company Secretary at Schroders Investment Management (Europe) S.A. in Luxembourg. In this role, she supports Luxembourg fund ranges, including UCITs, AIF, and ELTIF, and the main EU Management Company as a board company secretary. Additionally, Keti advises on governance matters for group entity boards and management committees, integrating AI and more specifically, LLMs in daily company secretarial work.

Before joining Schroders, Keti served as the Company Secretary of TBC Bank Group PLC and held various roles at its main subsidiary, JSC TBC Bank, including in investor relations and debt capital markets fundraising. Keti holds an LLM degree in banking and finance law from the City, University of London, and a BA degree in International Relations and Economics from Simmons University, Boston, MA. She is an Associate member of The Chartered Governance Institute of UK & Ireland.

Marija Krlic’s first degree was in Psychology from the University of London. She then joined HM Prison Service and worked for 13 years as a prison governor grade in a variety of prisons. She has held posts with the Home Office Drug Prevention Advisory Service, as a resident expert for prison reform with the Council of Europe and as a senior policy officer with the Ministry of Justice. Following Marija’s PhD, she has worked on a number of multi-disciplinary research projects focusing on the topics of surveillance and change management in policing. She is currently working for Leeds Beckett University as the researcher on a project examining the importance of values for governance.

Nicola is a Chartered Company Secretary with over 15 years of board facing experience for fully listed companies and investment trusts. She delivers listed governance advisory support to many of the UK’s leading organisations. She started her career in professional services, progressing through the various levels within the company secretarial team from Assistant Consultant to Director. During this time, she gained significant exposure to listed companies and provided the full suite of company secretarial services to these clients (board advisory, annual report and accounts preparation, AGM support and statutory compliance). Before joining the LawDeb team Nicola had oversight of two delivery teams responsible for supporting fully listed and private groups with all aspects of corporate governance.

Roxane is an English and French-speaking Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Consultant at EW Group. Roxane uses her professional and academic expertise and her lived experience to deliver engaging and impactful DEI training and consultancy services leading to social and cultural change.

Roxane has provided DEI training and consultancy services to a diverse range of clients, including intergovernmental organisations, universities, government departments, non-profits, and businesses. She has worked with clients in sectors including healthcare, higher education, transport, arts and culture and humanitarian aid. Her expertise spans a variety of topics, including disability inclusion, neurodiversity, intersectionality, and inclusive communication.

Her DEI experience draws from her work in the Disabled-led sector, public involvement, and community organising and from her International Relations, Communication, Media and Culture studies. She is particularly passionate about tackling the barriers that Disabled people face in the workplace and addressing inequalities through an intersectional lens. She is fascinated by the nuances and complexities of DEI work in a global context.

When she is not working, Roxane enjoys exploring London, singing in her community choir, and learning about music and pop culture.

Rebecca is an Associate of the Chartered Governance Institute with over 20 years experience in Governance positions across a wide range of industries including, financial services, local government and the NHS.

She is passionate about changing outdated views of governance and works hard to dispel the myth of the Company Secretary as a gatekeeper, and instead promotes the maintenance of high standards of governance as an enabler to the effective and efficient running of the business. She believes that the key to success as a Company Secretary is building strong relationships across the organisation and being open to change.

She holds LLB, LPC and MSc qualifications and is also a coach and NLP practitioner.

Loretto has worked as a Company Secretary to boards of complex organisations for two decades. She joined the University of Exeter Business School in 2022 as a PhD Researcher in Leadership Studies, researching how board dynamics can contribute to effective and inclusive boards.

Loretto has worked in governance across a number of sectors spanning insurance, banking, asset management, pensions, universities, charities, professional bodies, chartered bodies and regulators. In these roles, she has successfully deployed governance frameworks across multiple jurisdictions and regulators, devised solutions which support business aims, ensured proportional regulatory compliance, and raised the profile of the company secretary as an effective business partnering function. Loretto also served as Trustee for Magpas Air Ambulance for 8 years to 2021, serving as Chair of Remuneration and Nomination Committees. This gave her the opportunity to be involved in a clinical governance focused charity while deploying her corporate governance skills in a non-executive director capacity.

Loretto continues to support boards while completing her PhD, she is currently voluntary Company Secretary for Publish What You Fund (a global aid transparency campaign) and a Financial Services governance consultant.

David is Secretary General of the Magna Charta Observatory based at the University of Bologna. This global network of approaching 1,000 universities is concerned with promoting and protecting the fundamental values of autonomy and academic freedom and universities’ responsibility to society. The Living Values project which he co-designed is used by universities around the globe.
David was previously Director of International Projects at the UK’s Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, the founding Registrar and Acting Chief Executive of the British University in Dubai and head of the administration of two British universities. He also chairs Gulf Education Conferences.

David was Master of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators from 2017-18.   He chaired the Education Committee from 2019 – 23 and chairs the steering committee for its research project.

Anna is an experienced governance professional and chartered Company secretary, and is an Associate and trainer for The Chartered Governance Institute. She works as a consultant, trainer and governance professional in the school trust and charity sectors, both through Lead To, and also as co-Director of Trust Governance Professionals. Anna has a Masters in Corporate Governance, Certificate in Charity Law & Governance and is a certified GDPR practitioner.

Liz is a Chartered Company Secretary with 15 years experience working for large listed and private companies. During this period she spent 7 years contracting where she gained significant exposure to a diverse number of different company types. Currently she delivers governance support to Drax Group plc as the Deputy Company Secretary. Drax is a FTSE 250 renewable energy company with a presence in Canada, the US and UK.

Outside of work Liz enjoys walking her two dogs around the Sussex countryside where she lives and riding her elderly horse, Roo.

As a Solution Architect, Magda will focus on the EMEA region, working with commercial and business development teams, and their prospects/clients as subject matter experts to find bespoke service solutions that fit their needs. Magda has been in a client-facing role since she joined TMF in 2015 as a Global Entity Management coordinator. In 2021, she assumed the role of Client Service Director overseeing a portfolio of global clients and managing a team of Client Service Managers. Before joining TMF, Magda was a Relationship Manager in a private company providing SPV solutions and tax optimizations, where she was acting as the main point of contact for clients in case of escalations as well as new opportunities. She also led a team of Junior Relationship Managers and Assistants, holding the responsibility for their portfolio.

Alicja has been central to expanding Computershare's GEMS entity management software to incorporate global entity management services. Alicja delivers innovative solutions for clients across technology and process optimisation to streamline and automate ways of working.

Radojka has substantial experience across a range of governance, strategy and research projects and is used to working at senior (Board and Executive) levels in organisations. As a Partner, she leads on the governance business stream at the consultancy practice Campbell Tickell.

She has worked directly with several hundred clients on a range of governance assignments, including public bodies and regulators, small and large charities, social housing organisations, sports organisations, health-related service providers and membership bodies. She has co-authored different governance publications, mostly related to guidance or learning about how to improve, and is also a practised facilitator.

She serves as the Independent Chair of the Charity Governance Code Steering Group.

Sir Robin Millar is Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Blue Raincoat Chrysalis Group and a globally recognised music producer, with 160 platinum and gold discs, including 'Diamond Life' by Sade.  He enrolled as a music technology apprentice at the age of 24. Robin is Chair of the Board of Trustees at Scope, the disability equality charity. He states that, as a blind person, he has never been offered paid employment in the UK in 50 years.

He is an Honorary Professor at the London College of Music, Honorary Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge a Fellow of the Association of Professional Recording Services and former Global Ambassador for Leonard Cheshire, the world’s largest global pan-disability organisation.

He served on the Creative Industries Sector Skills Council, National Skills Academy and then as a trustee of the Creative and Cultural Skills between 2006 and 2016. As leader of the Creative Employment programme he helped create 10,500 new apprentices for the creative sector.

Robin was knighted in the 2022 New Years Honours for his services to music, people with disabilities, young people and to charity. He is the winner of the 2024 Shaw Trust Power 100 most influential people in the UK in Business & Finance 2024 Duke of Westminster Lifetime Achievement award for services to people with sight loss.

Sophia Moreau is a multi-award winning diversity, equity, justice and inclusion expert with a background in communications, press, advocacy and organisational change. As the Founder of S. Moreau Consulting, she is passionate about building truly inclusive services, organisations and societies.

Sophia spends most of her time as a trainer, auditor, and interim leader supporting organisations to become more inclusive and intersectional. She was named in 2022 the Burberry British Diversity Awards Diversity ‘Campaigner of the Year’, a 2022 Judge of the Orwell Prize, and a 2023 Charity Times ‘leader to watch’. Outside of work, Sophia sits on the board of SOS!SEN, a children’s disability charity.

Onyeka is an experienced governance professional and chartered  company secretary in the UK. Onyeka has industry experience in the legal, engineering and insurance/ financial services sectors but comes from a legal background in law after obtaining an LLB in law and then going on to achieve her MSC in Corporate Governance. Onyeka is additionally an associate member of the Chartered Governance Institute and was the first ever Governance professional to be featured as a candidate on the BBC The Apprentice.

Onyeka is an advocate for modern governance and continues to promote the importance of this. She is a subject matter expert in general executive / board & committee administration, corporate governance processes, global board operations and board training and advisory . She has also been recognised in the past as a modern leader for digital transformation innovation.

Aaron’s current research primarily focuses on corporate governance, specifically his research has several streams: studying the impact of regulatory interventions to promote corporate disclosure on the issue of gender diversity on corporate boards; evaluating the impact of board characteristics on positive (or negative) disclosure; and exploring the impact of exogenous shocks (e.g., sudden regulatory change) on board decision making. His research has been published in leading academic journals (such as Science Advances and The Leadership Quarterly).

Megan is Executive Director, Research at Board Intelligence, where she is responsible for thought leadership. Since joining the business in 2018, she has held roles within the Business Development, Customer and Marketing teams. Previously, as Market Director, she led the team serving Board Intelligence’s clients in the Private Equity and Trust & Corporate Services sectors.

Prior to joining Board Intelligence, Megan spent nine years at Skillcapital, a leading executive search and transaction advisory firm focused on the private equity market. As a Director in the Technology, Media & Telecoms practice, she led assignments in Europe and North America, building boards and management teams for private equity-backed businesses and supporting private equity firms with deal origination and due diligence.

Before joining Skillcapital, Megan worked in strategy consulting with L.E.K. Consulting, working on projects for corporate and private equity clients across a range of industries. Megan has an MA in Economics from the University of Cambridge (Clare College).

Sophie is a Partner at Make Happy, a creative facilitation agency which helps groups and organisations foster creativity, connection and kindness. They do this by creating safe spaces for fruitful dialogue through workshops and training.

Sophie is a highly experienced facilitator and certified mediator. She has 15 years experience delivering workshops to groups of all shapes and sizes. Sophie enjoys using a range of tools to help groups do their best thinking, unleash their creativity and harness their ideas and
experiences to create solutions that work in the real world.

Sophie has designed and delivered workshops for a wide range of organisations including Accenture, Lionsgate Film Production and the BBC.

Renae is a Corporate Reporting and Projects Manager at National Grid, where she has worked since 2014. In addition to her role at National Grid, Renae is a qualified Governance Professional of the Chartered Governance Institute.

Jake Ratzer Willis has ten years of experience in monitoring, evaluation and learning, and currently leads the impact and evaluation function at Battersea where he has been since 2021. Prior to this, he worked in the international development sector at VSO, overseeing its reporting on a £100m+ government funded youth development programme. He is also currently chair of Battersea’s LGBTQ+ Network.

Jake has a particular interest in working with organisations to ensure that monitoring and evaluation leads to organisational learning. It is in this vein that he has overseen the development of Battersea’s approach to impact and evaluation, while also supporting teams to leverage data and information to support project and programme development.

Jake lives in Wandsworth, London with his husband, Sam. In his spare time, he can usually be found either training for his latest fitness challenge (currently the much-regrettable decision of the Surrey Half Marathon followed by Battle Cancer the following week), or at a gig or festival.

Wilma specialises in legal, regulatory and market practice advisory issues relevant to UK-listed companies and private UK-registered companies and LLPs. Topics she covers include corporate governance systems and procedures, annual reports and other disclosure requirements, general meetings and shareholder decision-making, shareholder activism and requisitions, directors’ duties and responsibilities, investor stewardship, company formation and constitutions, corporate communications and restrictions on political donations and expenditure.

Dani Saghafi is an Associate Professor of Practice at Brunel University London. She transitioned to academia 5 years ago after two decades of career in leading investigatory work in M&A and Audit with a mission to bridge the gap between academic knowledge and professional practice.

In recent years, Dani has held several governance roles, including currently serving on the global Governing Council of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and a Board Member and Trustee at the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA).

Rachael is Deputy Director of the Institute and is responsible for our research programme, and our advisory and training services. She is most interested in how research can generate insights that inspire action.

Rachael has collaborated with senior leaders across business, charities, communities, local and central government. After gaining her first degree in Politics and History from the University of Durham, and a Masters in Gender and Social Policy from the London School of Economics, Rachael worked in Westminster, then for Carers UK, for UNISON, the public sector trade union, and for the TUC, on skills policy. She was at Business in the Community for over ten years, as an expert in workplace diversity and then in education business partnerships. As a Director at BITC, she worked closely with the Department for Work and Pensions, the then Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and business leaders from Aviva, Barclays, Nationwide, UBS, McKinsey and many more. Her most recent role was on the SLT of Speakers for Schools as it scaled its delivery of opportunities for young people.

She has held a number of trustee roles including on the board of the Rich Mix Cultural Foundation, the Bromley by Bow Centre and East End Homes. She is currently chair of a charity called Sister System. She was an elected local councillor for ten years and served as leader of the Labour Group on Tower Hamlets Council. In 2019 Rachael gained an MSc from Birkbeck, University of London, in Business Ethics and Corporate Governance, with a dissertation focussed on how boards communicate their community engagement.

With global expertise on women on corporate boards, Ruth’s research areas include women in leadership, board composition, corporate governance, inclusion, regulation, non-financial narrative reporting and leadership. Ruth has worked closely with government departments, listed companies and the NHS, advising on strategies to increase board diversity. After an entrepreneurial career and several years as an organizational psychology consultant, Ruth completed her PhD at Cranfield School of Management, becoming lead researcher on the government’s annual “Female FTSE Report”, 2007-2017, co-authoring similar reports in Hong Kong and India, and supplying data for the Lord Davies Women on Boards Review 2010-2015, which oversaw the increase of women on boards from 12% to 26% in just 4 years. She moved to City University, London in 2013, where she ran the MSc Organisational Psychology. Since joining University of Exeter Business School in 2016, she has been positioning leadership diversity as a strategic and governance issue, co-authoring reports for the Financial Reporting Council on “Board Diversity Reporting” (2018) and “The Future Of Corporate Reporting” (2020). Ruth has led the NHS “50:50 by 2020 Women on Boards” research, benchmarking and setting out recommendations for boardroom diversity with 250+ NHS Trust Chairs England, and subsequently in Wales and Northern Ireland (2024). 

In a recent two-year funded project for the Solicitors Regulatory Authority, Ruth collaborated with colleagues in law and psychology to ascertain causes of and recommendations against differential outcomes by ethnicity in solicitor professional qualifications in the UK. Ruth currently teaches post-graduate, MBA and Senior Leader Degree Apprenticeship in Responsible, Sustainable and Inclusive Leadership.

Rebecca Sherratt is Head of Publications at Diligent Market Intelligence and manages the company’s special reports related to ESG, shareholder activism and corporate governance. She was formerly the editor of stewardship magazines Insightia Monthly and Proxy Monthly.

Paddy Skinner is the General Manager (UK & Europe) at Atticus. Atticus is a technology platform that automates the verification of key corporate documents (including annual reports, RNS announcements and sustainability reports) for companies across the world. Atticus makes verification quick, collaborative and secure, so you can spend less time on process and more time on the things that matter.

Having previously practiced law at Herbert Smith Freehills in the firm’s corporate division, Paddy joined the “legal/reg tech” sector in 2018 and has worked across a range of innovations including no-code automation and ML-powered due diligence. At Atticus, Paddy is responsible for Atticus’s operations in the UK & Europe.

Paddy is also a Member of the Law Society’s Technology and Law Committee. He is an alumnus of Trinity College Dublin.

Simon is an AI Governance expert and founder of Kegai, a boutique AI Governance practise in the City of London. Kegai specialises in helping Company Secretaries and Boards deploy and govern trustworthy AI. Simon introduced GovernanceTech to FTSE100 boards (Diligent) and co-founded a Generative AI unicorn recognised by Gartner as a world leader in Enterprise AI (Arria NLG). Simon is an Author, Playwright, Podcaster, and Public Speaker.

Beth Stallwood is a coach, facilitator, speaker, consultant and author, and the founder of Create WorkJoy. She’s spent 20 years developing her signature practical, passionate approach, and excels at getting to the heart of what’s actually going on – whether that’s for an individual client stuck in WorkGloom or an organisation with a people challenge to solve. Her clients range from global corporations to tech scale-ups, sports governing bodies, charities, the public sector and higher education institutions. Beth has extensive experience in the fields of learning, development and organisational culture and is an expert host of large-scale speaker events.

Her qualifications include an MA in Human Resource Management and an Advanced Certificate in Coaching and Mentoring. Beth’s first book, WorkJoy: a toolkit for a better working life, is a finalist in the Business Book Awards 2024 and her podcast, the WorkJoy Jam, is available on all major podcast platforms.

Jennifer is co-CEO of Board Intelligence, the mission-led technology firm she co-founded in 2009 to transform boards and leadership teams into a powerful driver of performance and a force for good.

Jennifer began her career in strategy consulting and is a serial entrepreneur, having founded her first business in her early 20s. She holds an MA from Cambridge University and The Judge Business School. Jennifer is a regular speaker at conferences and events, and previously held a regular column with Management Today. She has played a vocal role in shaping governance best practice in the UK and internationally, and has won numerous awards including EY London Entrepreneur of the Year, LDC’s ‘Ones to Watch’, which celebrates the leaders of the UK’s fastest-growing businesses, and The Times Young Business Woman of the Year.

Together with co-CEO Pippa Begg, Jennifer is the author of ‘Collective Intelligence: How to build a business that’s smarter than you’. Described as "an essential guide" by New York Times bestselling author Daniel H. Pink, the book has also been featured in the Financial Times.

Peter Swabey is Policy & Research Director at The Chartered Governance Institute. He is responsible for developing the profile of the Institute to members, regulators, policymakers, employers and other stakeholders by delivering thought leadership and lobbying campaigns aligned to The Institutes strategy and promoting strong governance as the vital ingredient for success in organisations.

Peter has 30 years' experience of the share registration industry, gained at Lloyds TSB Registrars and subsequently Equiniti and Equiniti David Venus amongst others. He is a member of the CBI Companies Committee, the QCA Corporate Governance Expert Group and the Shareholder Voting Working Group, as well as being an Alternate Member of the Takeover Panel and a past chairman of the The Chartered Governance Institute Registrars Group.

Charity Chair and former FTSE100 Company Secretary with extensive international governance experience and a focus on risk, ESG and remuneration. Currently Chair of Spark! Charity, formerly Chair of ShareGift, and Company Secretary of FTSE100 Healthcare company, Smith+Nephew.

Joy Tweed is an experienced non-executive director who has served on various boards in the healthcare sector continuously since 2002.

She is a currently Chair of the Local Optical Committee Support Unit (LOCSU), a non-executive director at the Academy of Healthcare Science (AHCS) and Chair of their Regulation Board. Previous roles include serving on the board of the Health and Care Professions Council, a local Hospice and an NHS Trust.

Joy has an academic background and was previously a course leader for an MSc in healthcare leadership and governance. Her PhD, completed in 2017, explored corporate governance in the private and public sector, with a focus on the role of the non-executive director and board effectiveness. Joy is currently leading on a project within AHCS on very senior leadership development within healthcare science. She maintains a strong interest in governance, providing consultancy and training to organisations in the public and not-for-profit sectors.

Aynsley is responsible for the Global Entity Management and Accounting & Tax proposition, further building relationships with key intermediaries, partners and corporate clients to position TMF Group alongside leading industry providers. Aynsley has over 20 years’ experience in the financial services sector working in both the onshore and offshore markets. She has spent past decade focusing on corporate clients and related incentives structures for a variety of companies and their founders. Aynsley started her career in the Channel Islands and worked closely with professional intermediaries and both corporate and individual clients. Aynsley then spent 10 years with large multinational bank building their Global Stock & Rewards Services business servicing FTSE 100, 250, AIM listed and private companies and joined TMF in 2021.

Jasmine Whitbread Jasmine is a portfolio non-executive with cross-sector, international experience. Her current board roles are with WPP plc, where she chairs the Compensation Committee, and Compagnie Financière Richemont SA, where she chairs the Governance and Sustainability Committee. She holds advisory roles with Spencer Stuart, Brown Advisory and the Institute of Business Ethics.

Jasmine recently stepped down as Chair of Travis Perkins plc, and has previously served on the boards of Standard Chartered plc, where she chaired the Culture and Sustainability Committee, and BT plc, where she chaired the Digital Impact and Sustainability Committee.

In her executive career, Jasmine was most recently CEO of London First and, prior to that, CEO of Save the Children International, where she aligned all 30 members of the federation with 25,000 people and a multibillion-dollar budget behind a single purpose and strategy operating in over 100 countries.

Before this, she held leadership roles with Oxfam in the UK and in West Africa. Her earlier career was in technology marketing, holding management positions with Rio Tinto and then in the US with the venture-funded start-up Cortex Corporation and Thomson Financial.

Jasmine was awarded a BA in English and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Bristol.

She completed the Executive Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford. Jasmine holds dual British/Swiss nationality and is married with two grown-up children.

Charles Wookey is an independent  consultant and business school teacher. Until 2022 he was CEO  of A Blueprint for Better Business, a charity he co-founded  after the financial crisis to help restore trust in business. Under his leadership Blueprint became engaged with a number of  global companies helping them be truly purpose led. From the outset Blueprint sought to bring together all strands of society. Charles’s working background helped make this a reality.

He qualified as a Chartered Accountant at KPMG in London and holds a BA in Physics and Philosophy and a Postgraduate Diploma in Theology from Merton College, Oxford. He worked as a senior research officer at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and as a Clerk at the House of Commons where he was Clerk to the Trade and Industry select committee. He also spent some years as public affairs adviser to the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. Since stepping down from Blueprint Charles remains a trustee of the charity and now works alongside business leaders serious about running purpose led businesses, and teaches on Exec Education programs including at Said Business School in Oxford. He is also a keen amateur pianist and recently performed Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto at a charity concert to raise funds for a hospice in Eastbourne.