Kate Cheetham, Group General Counsel, Lloyds Banking Group

Kate was appointed Deputy Group General Counsel in December 2012 and Group General Counsel in 2015. In her current role Kate is jointly responsible, with the Group General Counsel, for the strategic leadership and direction of the Lloyds Banking Group’s legal team. In addition, Kate is responsible for day-to-day management of the legal function and advising the Group on major corporate matters. Kate is co-chair of Breakthrough, the LBG’s women’s network which has a membership of c.10,000 people. She is Sponsor of “Legal in the Community”, the legal function’s Responsible Business programme and trustee of the charity “Suited & Booted”, which helps men who are out of work to find employment. Kate joined the Group Legal team at Lloyds TSB Group in 2005. Before joining Lloyds TSB, Kate was a corporate lawyer at Linklaters and before that she ran a commercial art gallery in London for 5 years.

Dan Fitz, General Counsel and Company Secretary, BT plc

Dan is Group General Counsel and Company Secretary. Dan joined BT Group plc in April 2010. Dan is also Diversity Champion at BT. Prior to joining BT, Dan was Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Company Secretary of Misys plc and Group General Counsel at Cable & Wireless plc. Dan studied economics and law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (BA 1981, JD 1985) and international relations at the London School of Economics (Dipl. 1982). In 2009 Dan was Chair of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), an in-house lawyers association with over 30,000 members. He is an attorney (New York) and a solicitor (England & Wales).

Alison Kay, Group General Counsel, National Grid

Alison Kay was appointed Group General Counsel & Company Secretary for National Grid plc in January 2013. As such, she is responsible for shaping the group legal function within National Grid and providing company secretariat support to the boards and committees of National Grid. Formerly, Alison was Commercial Director, Transmission at National Grid for four and a half years, working with the gas and electricity industries in the UK and Europe to influence the legal and regulatory regimes in which National Grid operates, to deliver improved efficiency and reliability, while facilitating security of supply for Britain. Prior to this Alison was General Counsel and Company Secretary for National Grid Electricity Transmission plc and National Grid Gas plc. Alison qualified with corporate solicitors, Martineau Johnson, and spent eight years in private practice before joining National Grid Company plc in 1996. She has extensive external industry exposure, including a number of positions on European and UK committees. From 2006 to 2011 she was Chair of the Electricity Pension Scheme and chaired Enabling, National Grid’s Disability Network.

Dame Fiona Woolf CBE , Alderman Of The City Of London, Partner CMS

Alderman Fiona Woolf CBE is a Partner at CMS Cameron McKenna. Fiona is a leading energy lawyer who has made a major contribution to electricity reforms, power and transmission projects. Fiona has worked in over 40 jurisdictions, advised over 25 governments on reform, strategy and privatization, and been a strategic adviser to the World Bank, governments and corporations for 20 years. Fiona was awarded a CBE by the British Government for her contribution to the UK knowledge economy and invisible earnings. She is the former Lord Mayor Of London and she was former Member and Director of the UK Competition Commission, a non-executive director of Veolia Water Central plc., past Chair of Main Board and President of the Law Society, and an Alderman in the City of London (Sheriff 2010/11). Fiona is a member of the Government’s Women’s Business Council, and in 2011 was awarded a TIAW World of Difference 100 Award by The International Alliance for Women (achievers for economic empowerment and advancement of women locally, regionally or worldwide).

Dr. Lisa Webley, Professor of Empirical Studies, University of Westminster

Dr. Lisa Webley is Professor of Empirical Legal Studies at the University of Westminster and holds a Senior Research Fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies University of London. She has extensively researched gender and diversity in the legal profession, including major collaborative research projects on diversity in the legal profession and the role of women in law firms. Her work employs a range of qualitative and quantitative methods as well as doctrinal legal method. She also conducts research on legal ethics, legal education and access to justice. Most recently she has undertaken funded empirical research and consultancy for the Law Society of England and Wales, the Legal Services Board and the UK Centre for Legal Education as well as for a number of City law firms.

Lisa is on the editorial board for the International Journal of the Legal Profession, and is UK Correspondent and an editorial board member of Legal Ethics. She is a member of the Law Society Equality and Diversity Committee, the Academic Committee of the Civil Mediation Council, the Interlaw Diversity Forum and the International Association of Legal Ethics. She has previously published articles in the International Journal of the Legal Profession, the Journal of Law and Society, Legal Ethics, the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law and Law in Context. You may find out more at: http://westminster.academia.edu/LisaWebley

The Rt. Hon. Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC

Baroness Scotland is the former Shadow Attorney General and former Attorney General of England and Wales. Baroness Scotland has achieved a number of extraordinary firsts: In 1991 at the age of thirty five, she became the first black and youngest woman ever to be appointed Queen’s Counsel. She was the first black woman to be appointed Deputy High Court Judge, Recorder, Master of Middle Temple, Member of the House of Lords, and Lord’s Minister, and is the first and only woman ever to have been appointed as Attorney General. In 2001 she became Parliamentary Secretary and Deputy to the Lord Chancellor and was made a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. In 2003 Baroness Scotland was made Minister of State for Criminal Justice and Law Reform at the Home Office and in 2007 she was appointed as HM Attorney General for England Wales and Northern Ireland.Baroness Scotland undertook major reform of the criminal justice system, including the introduction of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act, and during her term of office from 2003-7 crime in England and Wales was reduced to its lowest level since 1981. During this period Baroness Scotland chaired the Inter-Ministerial Group on Domestic Violence which collectively worked together to reduce domestic violence by 64% and led to £7.5bn reduction in the economic cost of domestic violence in England and Wales. She has won many awards in recognition of her achievements including being voted Peer of the Year, Parliamentarian of the Year and receiving a lifetime achievement award from Euromoney Legal Media Group. In 2008, The Guardian named Baroness Scotland the most powerful female black Briton. Baroness Scotland is the founding patron of the Corporate Alliance Against Domestic Violence, and in 2011, she founded the Eliminate Domestic Violence Global Foundation. In November 2012, she was appointed Prime Ministerial Trade Envoy to South Africa.

Carola Hoyos, Recruitment, Executive Appointments and Non-Executive Director Club Editor, Financial Times

Carola Hoyos started as a journalist at the FT in the late 1990s when she became United Nations correspondent in New York, covering the diplomatic consequences of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the run up to the war in Iraq. As soon as diplomacy died and US war planes crossed the Iraqi border, Carola moved to the UK to cover the geopolitics of oil and gas and the sector’s biggest companies. That led to a stint as defence correspondent, which entailed flying a fighter jet, though more usually desk­bound stories about western defence budgets being cut. She became the FT’s recruitment editor and editor of the FT’s Non Executive Directors’ Club in 2014. Having reported on the failures and successes of several major companies, Carola is particularly interested in the impact of thought diversity on leadership and governance. Carola holds a dual degree in economics and international relations from Tufts University in the US and is married with three children. She has won two major journalism prize: Business Journalist of the Year for Breaking News (individual) and the Foreign Press Association Award for investigative reporting (team).