Marie Curie UK

Marie Curie is one of the UK's largest charities, with a turnover of circa £163m, 4,500 staff and 5,000 volunteers. Activities include the provision of clinical healthcare services, information and support services, research, policy, retail and fundraising.

Working closely with the Chairman, Board, CEO, and the Executive team, my focus has been on mitigating legal risk and improving the governance of the organisation, to maximise its performance and focus on its strategic aims through timely, data led and risk based decision making. 

In my role as Company Secretary, recruitment of a new Corporate Governance team and implementation of best practice by rolling out comprehensive use of board pack software and refreshing the corporate governance framework to meet modern standards. Delivery of improvements to the reporting provided to the Board in terms of quality, style and brevity of papers through delivery of training to paper writers across the organisation. Re-design of the internal governance framework to smooth out decision making and to create an agile environment to enable growth. 

In my role as General Counsel, working with the Legal team to modernise its practices, including use of automation and the adoption of business partnering. 

In my role as SIRO, recruitment and embedding of a new Information Governance team. Quickly gripping the key activities needed to ensure a good level of compliance with the GDPR and seizing opportunities in the way data is handled to boost activities producing data insights and, therefore, income generation.

General Counsel & Company Secretary, Executive Director

The Harpur Trust

The Harpur Trust operates four independent schools in Bedford and uses its surplus to support bursaries, social investment and community projects.

Board Trustee

Royal Society Of Arts

The RSA is a global network of changemakers enabling people, places and the planet to flourish in harmony. The RSA has been at the forefront of significant social impact for over 260 years. 

I have taken on the role of Independent Member of the Audit and Risk Committee at the RSA.

Independent Director

Chief

Chief is a private network built to drive more women into positions of power and keep them there. Chief is the only organisation specifically designed for the most powerful women executives to strengthen their leadership, magnify their influence, and pave the way to bring others with them. Sadly, Chief exited the London market in March 2024.

Founding Member

Motor Insurers'​ Bureau (MIB)

MIB is the data repository for the motor insurance market, and also deals with personal injury claims for the victims of uninsured and untraced drivers. MIB's turnover is circa £519m per annum. 

First Legal hire for MIB, with a remit to establish a fully functional Legal team. Prompt creation of a Legal strategy and recruitment of a team which assimilated the provision all non-Claims Legal support from external counsel within 12 months of my joining, delivering a net saving of 50% on Legal expenditure in my first year with the business, whilst improving the quality and consistency of advice given and reducing risk for the business. In my second year I saved a further 60% on budgeted expenditure, totaling a saving of over £1m in two years. 

Creation and rollout of a Legal policy and procedures and implementation of the use of DocuSign for the execution of all contracts, which instantly eliminated the risk of unauthorised contracting taking place. Delivery and rollout of a suite of house style contracts, which compressed contract negotiation time by over 70%.

Delivery of a contract discovery exercise in which all commercial contracts were collated, reviewed, and over 100 contracts renegotiated. Creation and rollout of a smart contracts database for use by the business. This delivered to the business a complete view of its contractual risk profile, to ensure executive decision making was fully informed. Reduction of the supplier estate by 35% and development of a comprehensive supplier management framework. The Procurement team then saved over £1m for the business in its first year.

Provision of company secretarial support to the group. Modernisation of the corporate governance framework, substantially reducing risks for executive directors and improving the transparency of decision making. 

Raising the corporate competence of the business through the delivery of bi-monthly Legal and Procurement training in various formats, tailored to the audience in each case.

General Counsel & Company Secretary

The Deltic Group

Previously known as Luminar Leisure, the country's largest late night leisure operator, with a turnover of over £100m operating late night bars and nightclubs across the UK.

Promotion to reporting directly to the CEO. Working closely with the Board, CEO and CFO on strategy, mergers and acquisitions. Took on the role of DPO and led a 12 month readiness project for the group ahead of the implementation of the GDPR in 2018. This involved a large scale change to data collection and processing practices across the group, together with training for hundreds of members of staff to embed the changes.

Leadership of the Legal, Governance, Insurance and Licensing departments. Transformation of the operations of the Legal team to use digital and automated tools, standard form documents and forming an agreed risk appetite statement in contract negotiations.

Head of Legal & Company Secretary

Shoosmiths

A member of the corporate practice group advising on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, corporate restructuring, and corporate governance and compliance issues. I also advised on equity investments for both private equity/venture capital investors and investee companies.

Associate

Jaguar Land Rover

Secondment to deliver the international group reorganisation of Jaguar Land Rover. Following completion of the reorganisation, provided corporate and commercial advice as a secondee to the Jaguar Land Rover Legal team.

Secondee

Birmingham Future

Birmingham Future was a large young professionals networking organisation. The Committee would run circa two events per month for up to 300 people.

Chair of the Events Committee

Bevan Brittan

A junior member of the corporate practice group advising on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, corporate restructuring, and corporate governance and compliance issues. I also supported on capital markets deals.

Solicitor

A commercially focused leader with the vision and fortitude to build, transform and drive first-class Governance, Legal and Compliance functions. Transforming the design and delivery of corporate strategy through the provision of commercial, pragmatic advice in highly regulated environments while maintaining a sharp focus on the operational needs of the business. Highly skilled solicitor with 20 years of corporate and commercial experience across a broad range of industry sectors, leading large teams and complex projects through to completion.

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