FRC Advisory Panel

The Advisory Panel Members are subject matter specialists in the following areas:

  • Actuarial work
  • Audit
  • Audit committee experience
  • Accountancy
  • Competition policy
  • Culture
  • ESG and narrative reporting
  • Preparation of financial statements (listed / corporate and local authority / public benefit entities)
  • Senior financial management (CFOs / FDs)
  • Forensic accountancy
  • Information security
  • Insolvency practice
  • Institutional investment
  • Internal audit
  • Relevant areas of law
  • Public Policy / Government / Public Interest
  • Regulation
  • Risk management
  • Technical accountancy
  • Academia

Members of the Advisory Panel will be called on to provide expert advice across the breadth of the FRC’s activities. This could include:

  • Input to the development and maintenance of regulatory standards, codes and guidance
  • Providing expert advice in relation to the FRC’s work on corporate reporting, audit firm supervision, audit market supervision, audit quality review and oversight of professional bodies
  • Providing advice to the Enforcement Division on case matters
  • Providing advice on regulation and public interest
  • Providing advice on the emerging issues affecting the regulatory landscape

Panel Members

  • Peter Andrews

    Member

    Peter Andrews is a Senior Adviser at Oxera Consulting LLP, where he chairs the Regulation and Market Design Centre of Excellence. He is also an assessor for the UK’s Research Excellence Framework 2021 and an associate at the LSE’s Systemic Risk Centre and at the Centre for Competition and Regulatory Policy. Until 2017 he was Chief Economist at the Financial Conduct Authority, where he worked extensively on competition and regulatory economics and participated in international committees operated by the IOSCO, the BIS and the FSB.

    His first role in financial regulation was as Assistant Director – Capital Standards at the Securities and Investments Board. His previous roles included Senior Manager in the Financial Institutions Group at a Big Four accounting firm and Special Adviser at a foreign-owned British bank. He has degrees from Oxford and London Universities, and is a member of the ICAEW and of the CISI.

  • Anthony Appleton

    Member

    Anthony is a partner in BDO’s Technical Standards Group, leading their team of corporate reporting technical specialists supporting the audit practice in driving the quality of financial reporting. He is an expert in IFRS, UK GAAP and UK narrative and corporate governance reporting covering both publicly traded and private companies.

    Anthony is a member of BDO’s global IFRS policy committee and is the chair of its global sustainability reporting committee.

    Anthony was previously the Director of Accounting and Reporting Policy at the FRC, leading its work on developing UK Financial Reporting Standards and narrative reporting guidance. He represented the FRC at international standard setting fora, including the Accounting Standards Advisory Forum of the IASB. He was also a member of EFRAG’s Technical Expert Group throughout his time at the FRC.

    Before joining the FRC in an executive capacity he was a member of the FRC’s Accounting Council.

  • Mei Ashelford

    Member

    Mei has 20+ years of technical corporate reporting experience including six years as a standard setter at the Financial Reporting Council, focusing on UK accounting standards and narrative reporting. Mei currently leads the investor communications and reporting offer at Brunswick Group providing strategic advice to FTSE 350, AIM and large private companies on strategic, governance and sustainability reporting regulation and best practice.

    Mei also sits on the ICAEW's Corporate Reporting Faculty Board. Mei has a keen interest in the evolving regulatory landscape and future direction of corporate reporting and is often called upon to speak on this subject at external events and is a frequent contributor of articles for relevant industry publications.

  • Michael-John Albert

    Member

    Michael-John Albert is a partner at EY specialising in the delivery of audit and other services to the financial services sector. Michael-John has experience across the spectrum of financial services in the UK, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. His clients include listed and unlisted large UK and inbound banks, mortgage service providers, sovereign wealth funds and asset managers.

    As well as audit, Michael-John’s advisory experience includes delivery of outsourced internal audit functions, regulatory reviews and assisting clients with multinational expansion plans. Michael-John is the Audit Quality leader for the UK firm, overseeing the audit quality strategy and initiatives for both financial services and the wider UK practice. He was previously head of Risk and Compliance for the UK’s financial services assurance practice.

    Michael-John is a Trustee and Treasurer for Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity and Chairs the Finance, Audit, Risk and Investment subcommittee. He was previously a Trustee of the Deloitte South Africa Pension Fund and through his membership of various committees advised the South African Regulator and Government on the development of the governance and accounting frameworks for retirement funds.

  • James Baird

    Member

    James Baird has over 30 years of audit and advisory experience, working with listed, large private and PE-funded businesses in the UK and globally. An Audit Partner in Deloitte LLP from 1999 to 2017, he led the firm in Scotland and NI before taking on leadership of the Swiss Audit & Advisory business from 2010 to 2015. During that time, he was also a National Risk Partner for the UK and Swiss firms as well as Chairman of Deloitte AG, COO for Switzerland and a member of the Swiss Executive. He retired from the firm in 2017.

    James is now a listed company Non-Executive Director and Chair of Audit Committee. Having completed a PhD on audit partner decision-making, he is Professor of Practice at Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow. A member of the ICAEW, James chairs the ICAS Research Panel and is a member of the ICAS Policy Leadership Board. He is Chair of Trustees at RS Macdonald Charitable Trust and a Trustee of Rainforest Trust UK. A former member of the Auditor Panel of the Global Public Policy Committee and of the Stakeholder Insight Group, James has contributed to a number of FRC working groups.

  • Patrick Bartlett

    Member

    Patrick retired from the role of Group Financial Controller at abrdn plc (formerly called Standard Life plc and Standard Life Aberdeen plc) in April 2023, after 35 years working in finance leadership and audit.

    He has extensive Audit Committee, Board and Risk experience; with particular expertise in FTSE 100 plc financial governance and ensuring complex financial matters are appropriately explained to, and understood by, Boards and Audit/Risk Committees. At abrdn plc Patrick led the financial reporting, capital management and treasury teams through a period of substantial change. He was responsible for leading the production of the Group’s external results and was a standing attendee at group Audit Committee meetings.

    Patrick also has broad experience of Board roles for major abrdn plc subsidiaries, including being CFO and Director of a PRA regulated insurance company and CFO of an FCA regulated asset management company.

    Prior to joining Standard Life plc, Patrick was Head of Financial Reporting and Tax for AEGON UK, and before this worked for EY for 13 years in London, Sydney and Edinburgh.

    He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and holds an MA in Mathematics from Oxford University.

  • Shalin Bhagwan

    Member

    Shalin Bhagwan is Chief Actuary and Interim Chief Financial Officer of the Pension Protection Fund. His career experience spans investments, insurance and pensions with a focus on the de-risking of defined benefit pension funds. Having started his career at a BPA insurer and large DC master trust in South Africa he then moved into investment advisory and management in the early 2000’s. His asset management experience includes the management of liability driven investment strategies for pension funds and Solvency 2 insurers across fixed income, derivatives as well as listed and private debt. He has managed these strategies for asset owners in the UK, USA and South Africa. He has also supported recent initiatives in the UK to bring about changes in UK pension scheme voting implementation. Prior to the PPF, he worked for DWS, Legal & General Investment Management, Mercer, Aon, FirstRand and Sanlam. Shalin is a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries and holds an Honours Degree in Statistics and Actuarial Science from the University of Cape Town.

  • Alice Bordini-Staden

    Member

    Alice Bordini Staden has 25 years’ experience in investment management and climate finance and policy. She held CIO and PM roles of innovative multi-strategy portfolios before focusing entirely on the energy transition finance and policy. Advisor to corporates and financial services firms on all aspects related to setting and implementing net zero transition strategies, stakeholder engagement, climate governance, ESG practices, regulatory disclosures and EU Taxonomy, climate finance and policy. Investment Committee Member and Stewardship Lead for the National Trust in the UK, leading its shareholder engagement activities within CA100+/IIGCC. Steering Committee Member for the Financial Sector Hub of the WEF's Climate Governance Initiative.

  • Richard Bray

    Member

    Richard is a charity finance professional who trained as a chartered accountant with KPMG. He currently leads the Finance Regulatory Team at Cancer Research UK. Richard was a member of The Committee for Accounting for Public Benefit Entities (CAPE) for eight years and then served as a member of the Charity SORP Committee for five years. He is currently a member of the Charity Committee of the Institute of Charity Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW). Richard leads The Charity Tax Group and is a well-known commentator in the charity sector on accounting and tax matters.

  • Stephen Butler

    Member

    Stephen is an Executive Director at the strategic communications agency Luminous. He has over 20 years of experience advising FTSE and private companies on various aspects of sustainability, ESG, corporate reporting, strategic communications, purpose, and digital engagement. Stephen also heads Luminous' insights team, which conducts research on best practices in ESG, corporate reporting, and digital IR.

    Stephen also serves as a member of the Policy Committee at the Investor Relations Society.

  • Robert Carroll

    Member

    Robert is a Director in the corporate reporting team within National Accounting and Audit at Deloitte LLP. He is principal author of the UK statutory reporting and UK GAAP volumes of Deloitte GAAP. He has over 20 years’ experience in technical accounting roles covering UK GAAP, IFRS and areas of company law relevant to corporate reporting, capital and distributable profits. Robert is a member of the Financial Reporting Faculty Editorial Board and Company Law Panel of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

  • Larissa Connor

    Member

    Larissa is a technical director within EY’s Financial Reporting Group, which she joined in 1999. She provides advice and support to the audit practice on UK GAAP and IFRS, specialising in UK company law relevant to corporate reporting and business combinations/consolidations, and is a contributing author and reviewer of EY’s International GAAP and UK GAAP publications. Larissa chairs EY Global’s First-time adoption technical expert group, and is a member of EY Global’s Business Combination Working Group and of EY Global’s IFRS for SMEs Topic Expert Groups. She is also a member of ICAEW’s Financial Reporting Committee, Non-financial Reporting Committee and Company Law Panel.

  • Una Curtis

    Member

    Úna is a Chartered Accountant (FCA). She is a KPMG Principal in the Department of Professional Practice has over 30 years of experience in providing technical accounting advice under IFRS and Irish GAAP to a wide range of entities from multinationals to domestic Irish entities. She is a member of the KPMG Global Topic Team on Leases and has recently been appointed a member of the IASB’s SME Implementation Group. She worked closely with the Company Law Reform Group on the consolidation of Irish company law and with the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation on the transposition of the EU Accounting Directive into the Companies Act 2014. Úna is deputy chairperson of the Accounting Committee of Chartered Accountants Ireland.

  • Geraint Davies

    Member

    Geraint is based in Dinas Powys in South Wales. Having studies Economics and Statistics at Exeter he joined and qualified as an accountant with Deloitte Haskins and Sells. For 25 years until his retirement in 2013 he was a partner in Grant Thornton. During that time, he acted for listed, AIM and substantial private companies but was also involved with Government, local authorities and the not-for-profit sector. He acts currently as a Non-Executive Director serving on a number of audit and risk committees. He is Chair of several charities and is the lead adviser to the Aberfan charities a role he has held for more than 40 years. He was awarded his CBE in the 2013 New Year Honours List for services and charitable activities in Wales.

  • Kathryn Donkersley

    Member

    Kathryn is a Director in PwC’s Corporate Reporting Services team. She advises the firm and its clients across a wide range of financial reporting topics, covering both UK GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards. Before joining PwC, Kathryn spent eight years as a staff member at the International Accounting Standards Board.

  • Valerie du Preez

    Member

    Valerie is a senior actuary with 20 years of insurance experience including providing consultancy services within actuarial and finance transformation. She specialises in financial reporting and advises insurers and technology providers on the use of innovative technologies including AI and advanced data science techniques, that incorporates business domain experience in a risk-controlled way.

  • Simon Gleadhill

    Member

    Simon is Corporate Reporting and IFRS Technical Controller at Howden Joinery Group Plc. This role combines his specialisms in IFRS technical accounting and financial reporting with Annual Report production, ESG reporting, and reporting on strategy and the business model.

    Simon originally qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PwC, where he worked mainly with large consumer and industrial companies in London and Oman. After moving into industry and several years of IFRS implementation and preparing listed company accounts, he developed additional specialisms in ESG reporting and Strategic reporting. He now leads the team responsible for producing several award-winning Annual Reports and Sustainability Reports.

    He was a member of the Advisory Group to the FRC’s “

    Future of Corporate Reporting

    ” project and is a member of the Investor Relations Society, holding their Certificate in Investor Relations.

  • Daniel Godfrey

    Member

    Daniel is a member of the Independent Governance Committee for the Legal & General DC pension schemes looking after the interests of over 2.5 million members and £35 billion of their savings. He is a Visiting Fellow at the Global Systems Institute of Exeter University, which researches system-wide solutions that can help to build a sustainable future for people and planet. Since its launch in 2016, Daniel has been an NED at Moneybox, the UK’s fastest growing savings and investment platform for younger people with over 1 million customers. He is an adviser to ShareAction and the Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) Asset Owners Network and a Member of the Advisory Board of the IoD’s Centre for Corporate Governance. He has previously held CEO roles at City trade associations, including the Investment Association, the trade body for the UK’s £10 trillion asset management industry.

  • Tom Gosling

    Member

    Tom Gosling is an Executive Fellow in the Department of Finance at London Business School and also an Executive Fellow at the European Corporate Governance Institute. In both these roles he contributes to the evidence-based practice of responsible business by connecting academic research, public policy, and corporate action. His research interests include executive pay, sustainable investing, and diversity and inclusion. Tom also sits on the ESG Advisory Committee of the Financial Conduct Authority.

    Tom has 20+ years of experience as a board advisor. Most recently he was a senior Partner at PwC where he established and led the firm’s executive pay practice, advising FTSE-100 and equivalent private and European companies on corporate governance and executive pay.

    Tom has a PhD in Applied Mathematics and is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries.

  • Tracey Groves

    Member

    Tracey is a board member, trusted business adviser and transformation consultant with extensive advisory experience working with Boards and Business Leaders. Tracey’s passion is advising Leaders and providing consulting services on the Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance strategic risk agenda [ESG], Ethical Leadership and Conduct, Organizational Integrity, Transformational Culture Change and Behaviours, Digital Ethics, Regulatory Risk and Compliance, and Inclusion and Belonging.

    Previously at PwC, Tracey was the UK Firm’s Senior Corporate Governance Partner and delivered cross-disciplinary ESG and sustainable business advisory services to clients with ethical conduct, purpose and behaviours as core enablers. Tracey is a qualified Chartered Accountant (ACA, ICAEW), a Certified Organizational Development Practitioner (NTL Institute) specialising in organizational change and performance and has completed the Oxford Leading Sustainable Corporations Programme developed by Said Business School, University of Oxford. Her work centres on advising Boards and Leaders in developing measurable and evidence-based approaches to creating ethical and transparent cultures that are risk-based, human-centred and sustainable.

    Tracey is a Partner at DWF, a leading global provider of integrated legal and business services, CEO and Founder of Intelligent Ethics and a Visiting Fellow at the Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied (IDEA) Centre, University of Leeds.

  • Robert Griffiths

    Member

    Rob is the Chief Financial Officer and deputy Chief Executive at Longhurst Group, a midlands based Housing Association managing over 24,000 homes.

    Rob was previously a member and former Chair of the Housing SORP Working Party which he chaired from 2015 - 2021.

    Rob is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.  Rob is also an employer member of the Employers Committee of the Social Housing Pensions scheme.  The scheme is a multi-employer scheme covering the social housing sector in England and Wales.  During his time as Chair of the Housing SORP Working Party, Rob oversaw the changes which enable the multi-employer defined benefit scheme to be accounted for each year as a defined benefit scheme.

  • Samantha Griffiths

    Member

    Samantha specialises in Board development, governance and the narrative reporting landscape, with emphasis on integrated thinking and reporting. She started her career in a large international bank, transitioned to a role in Treasury for a large multinational engineering business, before spending several years working at the London Stock Exchange. This has been followed by an extensive freelance consulting and training career, working alongside boards and senior management teams at many high-profile organisations. The focus of her work has been on developing and articulating value propositions for a variety of organisations. Consulting assignments have included investor outreach programmes, perception studies, board evaluations, annual report development, key message development, best practice benchmarking and board impact training.

    Samantha is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. She also has an Executive MBA from Manchester Business School (Guardian Scholarship recipient) and is a member of the Institute of Directors (IOD) - contributing to the IOD’s Expert Advisory Group - Governance. In addition to running her consultancy business, Sagenius, she is currently pursuing a part-time Executive Doctorate in Business Administration at Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield University – researching the tensions between governance and entrepreneurial boards of listed companies.

  • Philippa Hardwick

    Member

    Philippa has a portfolio of NEDs, and as a Commercial Barrister practised (as Philippa Hamilton) until 2012 from Fountain Court Chambers, where she remains an Associate Member. She previously worked as in-house counsel in a City Law Firm. Before her legal career she worked as an economics analyst for Unilever plc.

    From 2015-2018 she was Cabinet member responsible for finance and governance on Chichester District Council. She currently serves as a panellist on the Cabinet Office's Security Vetting Appeals Panel is Vice-Chair of the Trusthouse Charitable Foundation.

    Philippa is a former Chair of the FRC's Case Management Committee.

  • Roger Harrington

    Member

    Roger Harrington worked for BP plc from 2006 until 2018. Initially he led the company’s Group Accounting and Reporting team and from 2009 he held the position of Chief Accounting Officer. In this latter role he represented the company in discussions on accounting and reporting issues in the UK and internationally.

    Roger is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He trained and qualified whilst with Pricewaterhouse and has 20 years’ experience in audit and advisory, latterly with PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he became specialised in the Energy industry.

    Roger was educated at Keble college, Oxford University and holds a MA (Hons) in Engineering Science.

  • Rachael Hart

    Member

    Rachael is the Deputy S151 Officer for Herefordshire Council with responsibility for Finance, Commercial & Procurement, Fraud, Risk and Insurance Services across the Council. She is a Chartered Accountant (FCA) with over 20 years financial management and accountancy experience; including local government and public sector as well as private sector finance experience.

    As a former auditor, Rachael values the role of the auditor in promoting best practice and compliance and has a keen interest in the future of public audit and its ability to influence improvements in corporate and financial reporting and governance arrangements. Rachael acts as Accounts and Audit Advisor to the Society of County Treasurers (SCT), supporting member authorities with technical accounting issues and audit responses.

    Prior to working in local government, Rachael held roles at KPMG, the Audit Commission and Grant Thornton.

  • Fiona Hathorn

    Member

    Fiona is the CEO of Women on Boards UK, an Advisory Board Member to Spktral (a technology company that helps organisations simplify the gender pay gap reporting process), advisor to Peel Hunt (mid-cap stockbroker) and Chair of Hanx's Nominations Committee (FMCG start-up). She is an expert in the areas of Governance, Regulation and Talent Management who has sat on both marketing and audit & finance committees. Fiona is also a Patron of Fight for Sight (a medical research charity) and was formerly an investment director for Hill Samuel Asset Management. She has advised the board of the Thai Euro Fund and is a Judge for the Non-Executive Director Awards, sponsored by The Sunday Times. In 2020 Fiona joined King's College London's 'Global Institute for Women's Leadership' Advisory Board.

  • Jon Hayes

    Member

    Jon Hayes

    Jon Hayes is a CIPFA member with over 30 years of professional experience. He trained with the Audit Commission and undertook roles across all of the Commission's responsibilities for local government and the NHS, including as a statutory appointed auditor. From 2012 to 2015 he was a member of the Commission's executive management team.

    Jon was the Chief Officer of Public Sector Audit Appointments Ltd from 2015 until the end of 2018. In that time the company secured a long-term role supporting local government bodies in the new local audit regime and delivered the transitional statutory audit functions it was established to complete.

    Jon is currently a member of the audit and risk committees of the General Medical Council, the General Council of the Bar, St John's Ambulance, the London Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime and the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner. He is also the company secretary of a heritage charity in a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

  • Miles Hedges

    Member

    Miles Hedges was educated at Bloxham School and St John’s College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and is a Court Assistant of the Chartered Accountants Livery Company and a trustee of the Chartered Accountants’ Livery Charity.

    Miles initially spent 11 years as an auditor, which included significant experience of auditing universities and pension schemes as well a wide variety of industrial and financial entities. For two years he was Financial Adviser to the Universities Funding Council, sometime funder, and regulator of universities across the UK. He has been finance director/chief financial officer of three universities: the University of Nottingham, The Open University and the University of Derby. He has been a trustee of two self-administered trusts providing pension benefits for two of these universities.

    Miles is a past Chairman of the British Universities Finance Directors Group and was a member, and sometime chair, of the BUFDG Financial Reporting Group from its inception in 1990 until his retirement from full-time work in 2016.  He was a member of the Financial Reporting Council’s UK GAAP Technical Advisory Group until 2020.

  • Charles Henderson

    Member

    Charles is the chairman of the UK Shareholders’ Association and helps in their policy team. He is a former executive of Invesco, from where he retired at the end of May 2019, having supported Invesco's UK Equities team as Business Manager with their corporate finance and governance activities, specialising in the UK Takeover Code, primary market transactions, shareholder engagement, company reporting and auditing. While in his last role at Invesco he became a member of the FRC’s Audit Quality Review Committee. He participated in the Quoted Companies Alliance working group on the 2019 edition of the QCA's Audit Committee Guide. He continues his interest in company reporting and auditing through participating in the Corporate Reporting Users' Forum (CRUF) and UKSA policy team activities. He is co-chairman of the CRUF ESG sub-group. He is a member of the Pre-emption Group.

    Charles trained as a Chartered Accountant at Blease Lloyd & Co, before moving to Touche Ross & Co (now Deloitte) where he became a senior audit manager responsible for several financial institutions' clients, including Perpetual plc (now Invesco) and Nationwide Anglia Building Society. He then joined Invesco in 1994 and worked in several senior roles, including Head of Fund Administration and Accounting, Head of Global Investment Operations and Head of Invesco Perpetual’s Investment Management Operations.

  • Alex Hird

    Member

    Alex is a partner at BHP, leading the Financial Reporting Advisory & Valuations service. He supports large and complex clients in GAAP compliance (UK and IFRS), technical paper writing, financial reporting valuations, company law, and IPO’s; his broad range of client and sector experience helps companies to get reporting right first time. As well as dealing with external companies, he also supports the audit teams in the more complex areas of reporting and has a background as an auditor.

    As a member of the ICAEW, Alex has previously delivered technical training for northern members, and has won multiple industry awards in recent years.

  • Scott Jeffrey

    Member

    Scott is an Audit Partner at Johnston Carmichael LLP. Scott has over 20 years' experience of working in public practice and industry, and specialises in audit and the charity sector, within his role as Head of the Charities sector for his firm.

    Scott is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAS) Charities Panel, collectively responsible for representing ICAS on matters impacting the UK charity sector in relation to public policy, law and regulation, financial reporting and external scrutiny of financial statements. Scott also presents webinars and courses on behalf of the ICAS charity panel.

  • Naomi L'Estrange

    Member

    Naomi is a Managing Director with 20-20 Trustees, where she sits on boards for a wide variety of DB, DC and hybrid pension schemes. She was previously Director of Legal and of Strategy and Policy at the Pension Fund. She trained as a pension lawyer at Herbert Smith where she advised clients including the Institute of Actuaries, and went on secondment to the Department of Work and Pensions where she was responsible for the design of the moral hazard regime in the Pensions Act 2004.

    She has a law degree from Clare College Cambridge, a masters in European Law from L'Universite Libre de Bruxelles and is a graduate of the Meyler Campbell Executive Coach Programme.

  • Dominic Lindley

    Member

    Dominic Lindley is an independent consultant specialising in financial services, consumer protection and conduct risk issues. He is a Member of the Financial Services Consumer Panel and Director of policy for New City Agenda, a financial services thinktank founded by David Davis MP, Lord McFall and Lord Sharkey. He is the author of the report - The Pensions Dashboard: How can we make sure it works for consumers and has co-authored reports into the culture of the UK's retail banks and financial regulators. Prior to becoming an independent consultant he was leader of the financial services policy team at Which? and an economist for the UK Parliament’s Treasury Select Committee. He led Which?'s work on with-profits funds and the regulatory framework concerning the reattribution of inherited estates in the funds. He worked on the Future of Banking Commission and led work which resulted in the banning of consultancy charges and deferred member penalties in workplace pensions. He is a trustee of the Which? pension scheme and has been a member of the European Banking Authority Stakeholder Group.

  • Gal Maller

    Member

    Gal Maller is Group Board Member and MD for a global group of Life & Material Sciences companies headquartered in UK.

    He has +20 years of investing, governance, and commercial stewardship for corporate and public sector in a range of global markets, spanning Wall Street to UK private equity.

    Specialising in M&A, Gal has managed the full M&A life cycle for public and private companies and has advised regulators, sat on management boards, and acted as senior executive whose responsibilities includes: Corporate Governance, Stewardship, Strategy, Risk Management, IT, Cyber Security and Digital.

    His career path has taken him through several key roles including: M&A banker, private equity professional, family office executive, securities trader, corporate advisory, public and private buyside, Government and Board Advisor.

    Gal has placed special emphasis throughout his career to be involved and playing his part in shifting business to more sustainable businesses.  This includes fossil fuels to steam, recycle to reuse, cash to contactless payments, synthetic to natural materials and manual to digital.

    Gal is an active member of Young Presidents’ Organisation (YPO) and is a former Chairperson and current Impact Officer, previously being Education and Finance Officer.

    Gal holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and Bachelor’s in International Relations from Carleton College.

  • Colin McCarthy-Little

    Member

    Colin McCarthy-Little is currently the Head of Group Audit of International Airlines Group (IAG) leading the audit strategy and delivery across the Group. IAG is the parent company of British Airways, Iberia, Vueling, Aer Lingus, LEVEL, IAG Cargo, Avios and IAG GBS. Colin is also the Chair of the Audit and Compliance Committee of the oneworld Management Company and is a member of the UK Regional Committee of the Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand.

    Colin trained with KPMG Australia, where he worked in the assurance practice across a range of industries including Financial Services, Defence, Oil & Gas and Biotechnology. In 2008 he moved to KPMG London where he was a Senior Audit Manager on financial institutions including HSBC and ICICI Bank.

    Colin was a member of the FRC's Audit Quality Review Committee until December 2020.

  • William McMullan

    Member

    1 April 2024

    William is a Director in Moore Kingston Smith’s Corporate Client Services audit team, providing audit services to the firm’s portfolio of larger, more complex, and regulated entities. He trained and qualified with Grant Thornton, where he worked for nearly 16 years primarily auditing in the UK and Australia across a wide range of sectors including retail and professional services. Before joining Moore Kingston Smith, William was a Senior Audit Advisor in the FRC’s Enforcement Division. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and acts as a trustee and honorary treasurer for a small charity in the education sector. In addition to his audit experience, William was the financial controller for the London 2017 World Athletics Championships and World Para Athletics Championships.

  • Linda Phillips

    Member

    Linda Phillips is International Risk & Actuarial Director at Achmea. She joined Achmea group in 2006 and has since 2013 held various managerial roles at group providing oversight of the international business. She has more than 15 years of corporate governance experience and is currently a non-executive director and audit & risk committee chair at companies providing P&C and health insurance in Australia, Canada, Greece, Slovakia and Turkey.

    Linda is also a participant at the CRO Forum and a regular member of its working groups where she contributes to CRO Forum publications. She is passionate about ESG issues, in particular how insurers can get sustainable impact in scope 3 insurance-associated emissions and provides advice on PCAF measurement standards and Net-Zero Insurance Alliance target setting.

    Prior to moving to the Netherlands, she was Chief Actuary for a P&C insurer in the US. She started her career in London as a consulting actuary within the Lloyd’s market. She is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and the Dutch Koninklijk Actuarieel Genootschap and holds the Certificate in Corporate Governance from Insead.

  • Sallie Pilot

    Member

    Sallie has more than 25 years’ communications and stakeholder engagement expertise; combining strategic, commercial, and analytical experience with a solid understanding of disclosure environment, risk competencies, reporting, corporate governance, ESG and sustainability. She has worked with a range of UK and international clients as a former owner, board member and the advisory, thought leadership lead of Black Sun.

    Sallie is currently a senior advisor with the Investor Forum where she is focused on improving the dialogue between investors and boards. She is also a member of the Advisory Panel and Stakeholder Insight Group of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), a fellow and former board member of the Investor Relations Society, member of the Corporate Reporting Faculty Board of the ICAEW and member of Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) Communications Group.  

  • Sir Gareth Rhys Williams

    Member

    Gareth Rhys Williams has been the Government Chief Commercial Officer since March 2016 leading the Government Commercial Function, building capability through a program of accreditation and senior recruitment, while delivering improved contract delivery and savings averaging well over £2Bn a year. His tenure has coincided with the collapse of Carillion, the restructuring of a number of other key vendors, and most recently the collapse of Greensill.

    Gareth is an experienced CEO, and NED, with a strong record of driving transformational change in large international organisations, having taken a number of businesses through complex restructurings or sale processes.

    Before joining the Civil Service, Gareth was CEO of PHS Group, a leading provider of outsourced workplace services in the UK. Prior to which he was CEO of Charter International, the FTSE listed engineering group, until its successful sale to Colfax Corporation in 2012, CEO of Capital Safety Group Ltd, and CEO of Vitec Group plc, the listed supplier of broadcast and photographic equipment and services. Originally trained as a production engineer, he did his MBA at Insead, after which he ran business units for Rexam and BPB in the UK, Europe and the USA.

  • Kern Roberts

    Member

    Kern Roberts is the Global Accounting Practice Lead at Chatham Financial, an advisory and technology firm focused on financial risk management. Kern specialises in financial instrument accounting and hedge accounting under IFRS 9, IAS 39, ASC 815 and FRS 102. He also advises on embedded derivatives, the fair value requirements under IFRS 13, and the disclosure and presentation of financial instruments. Kern sits on the European Accounting Working Group of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), the ISDA North America Accounting Group, and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) Corporate Reporting Faculty Board.

    Prior to joining Chatham, he worked for Barclays in their Technical Accounting Group, and has also held technical accounting and audit positions with Smith and Williamson and PwC.

    Kern is a fellow of the ICAEW and graduated from the University of Warwick with a First Class degree in Politics and Sociology.

  • Andrew Robinson

    Member

    Andrew is a commercial valuer and expert witness for disputes involving valuation matters. He leads Deloitte’s specialist Valuation Group in the UK and is a member of Deloitte’s global management executive team for Valuation and Modelling with responsibility for the EMEA region. Andrew has 25 years of valuation experience of preparing and leading numerous valuation engagements in commercial situations, such as M&A and financial restructuring transactions. He also provides advice in the context of financial reporting and the fair valuation of acquired assets. He has been the named expert in over 30 contentious matters, including Investor-State and commercial arbitrations. He has appeared in court or hearings in London, New York, Paris and Hong Kong under High Court, ICC, LCIA and UNCITRAL rules. Andrew is a Counsellor and Fellow Member of Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand (“CAANZ”), an Associate and Corporate Finance Faculty Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (“ICAEW”), Member of the Securities Institute and he is registered as an Approved Person by the Financial Conduct Authority.

    Andrew is a member of the government Council of CAANZ.

  • Bob Scott

    Member

    Bob Scott is Senior Partner of the actuarial firm Lane Clark & Peacock LLP (“LCP”), a position he has held since 2011. He qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 1987 having completed the relevant examinations two years previously and became a partner in the firm in 1988.

    Bob has held a Scheme Actuary certificate since these were introduced in April 1997 under the Pensions Act 1995. He has been actively involved in the provision of actuarial and related advice to employers and trustees in relation to pensions since joining LCP in 1982. Prior to that he worked for an actuarial consulting firm in Australia, where he commenced his actuarial studies after graduating in 1977 with a degree in mathematics and statistics from the University of Melbourne.

    From 1 June 2016 to 31 May 2018 Bob was the Chair of the Association of Consulting Actuaries (“ACA”) which is the representative body for some 1800 UK consulting actuaries working in over 60 firms. He had been an officer of the Association for 4 years prior to his election as Chair and, as Immediate Past Chair, he remained an officer of the Association until March 2020. As ACA Chair, he participated fully in the activities of the International Actuarial Association, attending council and committee meetings in 2016 – 2018.

  • Jonathan Shaw

    Member

    Jonathan Shaw leads Grant Thornton UK LLP’s (Grant Thornton) financial reporting technical team which provides internal support and guidance on a range of corporate reporting related matters predominantly to the firm’s commercial audit service line. Jonathan also represents Grant Thornton in discussions on corporate reporting matters hosted by Grant Thornton International Limited, the coordinating entity for the international network of more than 130 independently owned and managed professional services firms in over 140 countries.

    Before re-joining Grant Thornton in early 2020, Jonathan served for four years as a director and company secretary of an AIM listed medical technology company. Prior to this, Jonathan has spent most of his career working as either Director or Senior Manager in large or mid-tier audit firms as well as being a Case Officer for the FRC’s Financial Reporting Review Panel. Jonathan is also a member of the ACCA’s Global Corporate Reporting Group and the ICAEW’s Company Law Panel.

  • Fiona Sheridan

    Member

    Fiona Sheridan is a Chartered Accountant and former Managing Partner with EY with a portfolio of Board and Committee roles including Board Trustee at The Children’s Trust, member of their Audit Committee & Remuneration Committee and Chair of the Finance, Fundraising & General Purpose Committee.

    She is a Member of the Audit, Risk, Assurance and Performance Committee at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and a Member of the Audit & Scrutiny Committee of The University of Oxford.

    As former Managing Partner of EY’s Risk Advisory Practice in UK & Ireland, Fiona’s client expertise focused on enterprise risk management, internal audit and internal control in FTSE 100/250 companies as well as supporting clients to understand the impact of their organisational culture on their current and desired risk appetite and attitude.

  • Pamela Stacey

    Member

    Pamela Stacey is the VP Risk & Compliance at COMPASS Pathways, a UK-based, NASDAQ-listed mental health care company dedicated to accelerating patient access to evidence-based innovation in mental health. She leads the design and management of the compliance programme including internal controls, and the enterprise risk management framework.

    Previously, Pamela was Head of Programme and Corporate Assurance, High Speed Two (HS2) Limited.  n this role, she was responsible for design and delivery of the HS2 Ltd risk-based assurance strategy and framework. She provided assurance of non-financial reporting and internal controls to HS2 Ltd’s Executive and the Audit & Risk Assurance Committee.

    Pamela also spent 25 years in various compliance, risk and assurance roles for a major Pharmaceutical company. This included five years as an account director in their global internal audit function, covering R&D, manufacturing, and commercial (sales) operations.  Then, as Head of Assurance, she was responsible for developing the global assurance framework for the company’s principal risks and transforming the Audit & Risk Committee governance and reporting process.  She also implemented an enterprise risk management framework, supported by the SAP GRC module, in one of the company’s major business units.

  • Pamela Taylor

    Member

    Pamela Taylor is a Partner in KPMG’s Department of Professional Practice responsible for accounting and reporting. She has many years’ experience of audit and providing technical advice to audit teams in areas such as international financial reporting standards and UK GAAP. Pamela was a member of the FRC’s UK GAAP Technical Advisory Group prior to the dissolution of that advisory group at the end of 2020.

  • David Thomas

    Member

    David Thomas is a panel member at the Competition and Markets Authority, a member of competition, enforcement and settlement decision committees at the Payment Systems Regulator, a member of the competition decision committee at the Financial Conduct Authority and a member of the consumer panel at the Civil Aviation Authority. He also runs an economic consultancy, DT Economics, focusing on regulation, competition and expert witness services.

    David is a chartered accountant and economist who started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers and moved to KPMG after a period as the director of competition and regulatory finance at Ofcom. At KPMG he founded and led its global economics and regulation practice. David retired as a partner at KPMG in 2016.

  • Wendy Walford

    Member

    Wendy Walford is Head of Climate Risk for Legal & General, a UK based financial services provider. Legal and General is a global provider of retirement solutions to corporates and individuals, and our skills lie in asset management and origination, longevity risk and technological innovation.

    As Head of climate risk for the Group, Wendy supports the delivery of the group’s climate goals and commitments, with a specific responsibility for the development of the group wider risk management framework to support inclusion of the financial risks from climate change. Her role also spans the Group’s strategic response to Climate risk, the governance framework, and the  metrics and targets.

    Wendy brings significant experience of application of actuarial techniques in climate related issues, alongside over 15 years of post-qualified experience of working in life insurance. She is also a member of the IFoA sustainability Board, where she is co-lead for policy and regulation.

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