Speakers are listed in alphabetical order.
Kit Bingham is a Principal in the Board Practice at Odgers Berndtson.Kit joined in August 2009, after a career in financial journalism and financial public relations. He was Senior Writer at Financial News, a Dow Jones publication, covering both corporates and the capital markets, with a particular focus on corporate governance reform. In 2007, he joined The Communication Group as a Director of the Financial Practice, with a mix of professional services and financial services clients. He tutors an MBA in board effectiveness at Henley Management College and is Consultant editor of Governance newsletter.
Jonathan Cohen built a successful first career in investment banking, becoming Chief Executive of County NatWest and subsequently Vice Chairman of Charterhouse Bank. When the life of an independent entrepreneur beckoned he co-founded a specialist city headhunter; invested in, acquired, managed and sold a range of private companies; and in 2002 co-founded IDDAS Limited. He is Group Chairman of Savile Group plc and a non-executive director of Eleco plc and of Clearwater Hampers Ltd.
Alison Gill is Founder and CEO of Crelos Ltd and a Director of Bvalco, who offer a radical new approach to board review. She combines an Oxford psychology degree, 15 years of commercial experience and Olympic rowing performances. She's committed to using real psychology in organisations, and to original thinking about solutions, not just running a process or ticking boxes. Ali is an author and a frequent and sought after contributor in the media with recent contributions to the Walker review and in the Sunday Times, the Times, the FT, Accountancy Today, Talent Review, Personnel Today, and on Woman's Hour. Ali is invited to speak on a range of topics including, most recently: boards and board behaviour; due diligence of executive teams; the psychology of risk; being an effective non-executive director; the psychology of the high performers and the psychology of change.
Seamus Gillen worked as ICSA’s Senior Policy Adviser for twelve months during which time he spearheaded the Institute’s work on boardroom behaviours and the ICSA Hermes Transparency in Governance Awards. He was appointed Director of Policy in November 2009. Seamus has worked at a senior level in the private and public sectors over the last 13 years. He started his career in local government in London before moving to Whitehall as a senior policy adviser. He was Private Secretary to the Rt Hon John Gummer MP, Secretary of State for the Environment and the Rt Hon John Prescott MP, Deputy Prime Minister. He then moved into industry as the Company Secretary and Director of Regulation at Anglian Water where he was responsible for all Board-level operations. Seamus then established his own business advising companies on governance, directors’ duties, disclosure and business metrics. He also specialises in issues of reputation and reputational risk, where he continues to work part-time on behalf of the Reputation Institute, a leading academic and research-based advisory body.
Sean O’Hare is a partner in the Human Resource business in PricewaterhouseCoopers, focusing on board level work from organisational design to culture change, board evaluation to advising Remuneration Committees. Sean advises global companies on all aspects of remuneration and has a particular interest in corporate governance. He is a member of a number of institutional shareholder groups including the International Corporate Governance Network. Previously Sean was a Partner at KPMG's Executive Compensation Practice, Head of Executive Compensation at Mercer Human Resource Consulting and UK Group Head of Corporate Governance at Mercer Delta. Sean is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Paul Moore was the former Head of Group Regulatory Risk at HBOS, one of the UK’s largest banks with assets in 2007 of over £660bn, over 74,000 full and part time staff and profits before tax of £5.4bn. When the banking crisis hit, HBOS had to be rescued by a forced acquisition by Lloyds Banking group supported by government capital and liquidity support. He was the only senior risk and compliance executive in UK banking sector to speak out publicly in the aftermath of the financial crisis about what he saw from the inside of a bank. His influential evidence to the UK Parliamentary Treasury Select Committee in February 2008 was widely publicised in the media world-wide and led directly to the resignation of Sir James Crosby who was then the Deputy Chairman of the Financial Services Authority.
Paul Moxey is responsible for ACCA’s policies on corporate governance and risk management, is a leading contributor to its responses to global developments in this area and participates in committees and projects on corporate governance and risk around the world. He has spoken on corporate governance and risk at major conferences and other events in five continents and written numerous articles. A qualified accountant, MBA and Visiting Senior Research Fellow at Kings College, London, and Paul held senior positions in industry including spending several years as company secretary and as group financial controller of a UK public company. Paul has a strong interest in the behavioural and psychological aspects of governance and risk. He is a skilled facilitator and has led many workshops for teams, from board level downwards and across organisations to develop strategy, improve organisational effectiveness and assess internal control and risk management. He is co-chairman of the Control and Risk Self-Assessment Forum.
Helen Pitcher is Chairman of IDDAS. Her career spans 30 years in both the business world and the consulting sector. At the age of 27 she was appointed the youngest ever board director for a division of Grand Metropolitan. In her subsequent consulting career, she became CEO of CEDAR, which she built into one of the best-regarded consultancies in the human capital world. Helen is recognised as a leading organisational performance coach and mentor, who works at the most senior level in FTSE 100 and international companies, as well as the public sector. She has a world-wide network of contacts and alumni whom she has coached and developed over the years. Helen is a panel member of the Employment Appeal Tribunal, Member of the Selection Panel for Queen's Counsel, Chairman of KidsOut and is also a trustee and fundraiser for several other charities. Helen has a Law Degree and an MA, is an APECS accredited coach and qualified psychometric assessor. She is a Fellow of the IOD, CIPD and RSA and has worked across a range of sectors including financial services, utilities, media, leisure, telecommunications, retail and public sector.
Chris Roebuck is Visiting Professor of Transformational Leadership at Cass Business School. He advises organisations on maximising performance through developing, aligning and engaging their people and has advised the Government on developing leadership in British Business and engaging staff better. In 2009 he was nominated by HR Magazine as one of the top 25 Most Influential HR Thinkers. Chris was formerly Global Head of Talent at UBS where he and colleagues implemented an integrated talent and leadership strategy which enabled UBS to win the title Best Company for Leaders in Europe 2005. This is now a Harvard Business School case study on developing an entrepreneurial culture that delivered improved corporate performance. Chris speaks on leadership to audiences globally, writes for CEO Magazine and other business publications and is quoted in the UK press and abroad in publications like Wall Street Journal, Le Monde and The Times of India. He is frequently interviewed on UK and global television channels. His book on “hands on leadership” was translated into 12 languages and he recently spoke in India at a global though leaders forum to an audience of 1300 at the request of the British Council.
