James is Chief Executive of the Quoted Companies Alliance, the members’ organisation that champions small and mid-sized companies whose shares are publicly traded. James was City Editor and Executive Editor of the Evening Standard and Independent titles and before that City Editor of the Sunday Times. He is the author of several business books and chairs Oscar’s Book Prize, the annual search for the UK’s best picture book. His latest book “The Everything Blueprint” tells the story of the microchip designer Arm and its place in the global semiconductor ecosystem.

Malcolm qualified as an ICAEW Chartered Accountant in 1981. He joined the ICAEW Council in 2005 and was elected President in 2024. He has worked in industry for the majority of his professional life, mainly as CFO of AIM-listed companies, across a wide range of sectors including property, childcare, mining, manufacturing, telecommunications, and construction. Amongst many other committee roles across ICAEW and its London District Society, he served as a member of the ICAEW Ethics Standards Committee from 2015 and was its Chair from 2018 to 2022. He is currently a member of HMRC's Administrative Burdens Advisory Board and of the Court of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Rafal worked as a Senior Policy Associate at the Financial Reporting Council's Corporate Governance and Stewardship team for the last four years, leading their corporate culture workstream. He co-authored the FRC's 2021 Creating Positive Culture – Opportunities and Challenges report and produced several podcasts on this theme. Most recently, Rafal co-authored edits to the 2024 Corporate Governance Code related to culture and Section 1 — Board Leadership and Company Purpose of the accompanying Guidance. Having worked in professional services in London for almost 15 years — across both the public and private sectors, he has gained exposure from multiple perspectives in relation to corporate governance, including corporate, investor and regulatory. He now works as an independent corporate governance and culture consultant, and is also the founder and coach at Candeo Coaching.

Simon is the Chair of the ICAEW Corporate Governance Committee – a committee that actively supports ICAEW’s Corporate Governance Department and the ICAEW Technical Strategy Board, as well as the wider membership on Corporate Governance matters. Simon is an audit partner and has over 27 years of experience providing audit and assurance services to financial services and infrastructure clients. He has led a number of listed company audits (including FTSE 100), and is accredited under both International and PCAOB auditing standards.

Alex has a PhD from MIT as a Fulbright Scholar, and was previously a tenured professor at Wharton and an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. Alex has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, testified in the UK Parliament, and given the TED talk ‘What to Trust in a Post-Truth World’ and the TEDx talks ‘The Pie-Growing Mindset’ and ‘The Social Responsibility of Business’ with a combined 3 million views. He serves as non-executive director of the Investor Forum and on Morgan Stanley’s Institute for Sustainable Investing Advisory Board, Novo Nordisk’s Sustainability Advisory Council, and Royal London Asset Management’s Responsible Investment Advisory Committee. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Caroline leads Railpen’s investment stewardship work globally across £37bn of assets under management. She was previously in charge of the investment, stewardship and collective engagement programme at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA). She is Co-founder and Chair of the $4.5tn Investor Coalition for Equal Votes (ICEV) and the $2.5tn Workforce Directors Coalition (WDC), Vice-Chair of the Global International Governance Network (GIGN) as well as a fully accredited professional pension trustee at the Standard Life Master Trust – where she is also Chair of its Investment and Sustainability Committee.

Tanya is a Partner in the Board Practice. She assists companies of all types and across all sectors with their chair and non-executive director recruitment needs, frequently partnering with sector specialists in the Norman Broadbent team. Prior to joining Norman Broadbent, Tanya was the NED Recruitment Lead at Women on Boards UK where she worked with SMEs, large privates, AIM and FTSE 350 companies, public sector bodies and not-for-profits to source diverse NED candidates from the network’s membership.

Annabel advises clients on ethics and organisational culture in an AI-driven future workplace and its role in building trust in a digital economy. She co-founded LSE FORGOOD, advising corporate clients on ethical applications of behavioural science, and 'Conversations on AI', a cross-sector tech ethics network, and is a member of the City of London Corporation's 'Women Pivoting to Digital' taskforce. Previously she spent over 20 years building institutional businesses in asset management and she serves on the Trustee Board of Clore Social Leadership, and the advisory committees of the Institute of Business Ethics and Blueprint for Better Business.

Aleen is Chair of Macfarlane Group PLC and also chairs a private reinsurance company and a not-for-profit entity. Prior to pursuing a portfolio career, Aleen was a Corporate Partner at Eversheds Sutherland for 30 years. While a partner she specialised in M&A and corporate finance, advising both quoted and large private companies. Aleen also advised on governance issues, becoming a trusted adviser to boards of companies she acted for. Following retirement as a partner she became a consultant at Eversheds Sutherland helping with governance matters.

Andrew leads EY’s public policy team for Europe Middle East India & Africa. Its role is to work with key stakeholders on constructive policy development so strengthening the working relationship between the public and private sector. He is chair of the Corporate Governance Committee of Business at the OECD, the Research Advisory Board of the ICAEW and the Corporate Governance Working Group of the European Contact Group whose members comprise the 6 largest accounting networks in the EU. He is vice-chair of the Corporate Governance Policy Group of Accountancy Europe and a member of the Policy Committee of the investor-led organisation International Corporate Governance Network.

Andy is chair of the Audit Committee Chairs’ Independent Forum (ACCIF) and is also a Non-Executive Director at The Berkeley Group Holdings plc . Andy is also a Non-Executive Director at Irwin Mitchell Holdings Limited where he chairs the Audit and Risk Committee and a Governor of Birkbeck University of London where he chairs the Finance and General Purposes Committee. Andy retired from PwC in June 2021 having spent nearly 39 years serving PwC’s FTSE100 clients, both in the UK and globally.

Maria is a Director within EY’ s Governance and Public Policy team. With many years’ experience working with premium listed clients, Maria has hands-on pragmatic experience of supporting clients with the implementation of new corporate governance requirements and advising on best practice reporting. She has been involved in the corporate governance workstreams of both the Embankment Project for Inclusive Capitalism, and WEF IBC white paper. Maria regularly presents to Non-Executive Directors and Management on matters of corporate governance and authors EY UK’s publications on front half narrative reporting.

Richard has over 25 years of board level experience across a range of regulated sectors. Prior to joining the FRC, he was CEO of the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority and before that the CEO of the Legal Services Board, which oversees the regulation of the legal professions. Earlier in his career he held senior roles in the regulation of social housing, communications and energy.

Nisha is a Partner and Head of Ashurst Risk Advisory Middle East. With two decades of consultancy and in-house commercial experience, Nisha is a pre-eminent consultant and business leader renowned for her product and business knowledge. Her experience includes providing board level executives with deep technical governance, regulatory and risk management insights, and leading complex business change programmes. In October 2022, Nisha joined Ashurst Risk Advisory UK as a founding partner, where Nisha led the development of new client relationships and the expansion of existing firm relationships by delivering quality solutions in corporate governance, risk management and regulatory compliance. 

Led by investors responsible for assets worth around $US 77 trillion, ICGN advances the highest standards of corporate governance and investor stewardship worldwide in pursuit of long-term value creation. Jen joined ICGN from Goldman Sachs Asset Management where she was EMEA Head of Stewardship, overseeing voting, engagement, and industry collaboration activities in the region. Previously she led policy outreach for the UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC), on ESG, audit and reporting matters including the creation of the 2020 UK Stewardship Code and the 2018 UK Corporate Governance Code.

Alan was previously CEO of the Chartered Insurance Institute, leading the premier professional body for insurance and financial planning. A chartered accountant with Ernst & Whinney, Alan is a Fellow of ICAEW, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and an Honorary Fellow of the Korean Institute of Architects.

Peter is the Director of Corporate Governance and Stewardship at ICAEW. Prior to this, he was the Chief Compliance Officer for multinational enterprises headquartered in the Netherlands, France and Japan. Peter spent over six years at Transparency International UK (TI-UK), where he set up the Business Integrity Programme.

Laura is a non-executive director at MacFarlane Group plc where she chairs the Remuneration Committee and is a member of the Audit and Nominations Committees. She is on the board of Trifast plc where she chairs the Remuneration Committee and is a member of the Audit, Responsible Business and Nominations Committees. For both of these businesses she is the Designated non-executive director for employee engagement. She is a also a Trustee at the Old Royal Naval College Greenwich.

Iain is responsible for ensuring that ICAEW leverages its world-class technical and policy expertise. He trained as a Chartered Accountant at Deloitte and Touche, before being elected as the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool in 2004. Iain went on to serve as a Minister in both the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Children, Schools and Families. Later, he became Chair of Parliament’s Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee, where he led high profile inquiries into the sale of BHS and working practices at Sports Direct.