Membership of the GRA Committee

Ruth is Managing Director of UncoverAI, a strategic consultancy focussed on ethical AI adoption.  Ruth has expertise in innovation, product development and strategy and co-founded an AI start-up in California.  Prior to that she was on the Board of BT Wholesale as Managing Director, Strategy and Portfolio where she managed innovation, strategic planning and execution of multi £billion product lines. 

Ruth has extensive Board experience spanning from media, technology and telecommunications to AI and her background covers both complex multinational organizations and early and mid-stage growth companies.  Throughout her career Ruth has championed diversity and inclusion.

Ruth is a member of the Forbes Women Forum, an invitation-only group of leading female executives which gathers to exchange dialogue and share ideas.  In September 2018, she was named to The Founders Index:  A rising generation of female entrepreneurs in the US.  She was one of the Global Telecoms Business Top 40 under 40 in 2010 and was shortlisted for ‘Woman of the Year in Technology in 2011. 

Jeff Chapman KC was called to the Bar in 1989 and took silk in 2010.  He specialises in commercial litigation and arbitration; especially in matters involving civil fraud, financial services and regulation (including sanctions) and banking.  Jeff is a member of the Commercial Bar Association, the Chancery Bar Association, JUSTICE and Fountain Court Chambers.  He was first appointed to the Complaints Committee of the BSB in 2007 and was a Barrister Vice-Chair of the Professional Conduct Committee of the BSB from 2015 to 2019.
 

Kathryn is a risk management professional, with a background in financial services. During her lengthy career, she has worked for major commercial banks, including JP Morgan Chase and NatWest, and a rating agency, Moody’s Investors Service. She also founded and managed a consulting company, The Paradigm Alliance. Kathryn is currently a Trustee and the Chair, Audit & Risk Committee, of the William Harvey Research Foundation, and an advisor to the Risk Coalition. She has been a board member of several organisations, including Al Rayan Bank, newcleo and Planet Holdings Ltd. She has also chaired the audit and risk committees of a number of these and other organisations, including the Microbiology Society.

Akhter Mateen is a former Chief Auditor of Unilever. He retired from Unilever in Dec 2012. In his 29-year career he has held high-level finance roles in Pakistan, Bangladesh, the UK, Latin America, South-East Asia and Australasia. Since 2014, he has held non-executive roles in various public, private and not-for-profit organisations. He is currently, Audit Committee Chair of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and of South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, chair of the Joint Audit Committee of Kent Police, a Trustee of Malala Fund UK – focusing on 12 years of free, safe and quality education for girls around the world. He has also served on the Boards of, Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Foundation Trust as Deputy Chair, as Non-executive Director of CABI – a not-for-profit international development organisation and as a trustee of Developments in Literacy (DIL) UK – a charity contributing to the education of the underprivileged in Pakistan.  He holds an MBA in Finance and is an accredited executive coach.

Abiodun Olatokun is a practising barrister at 36 Public and Human Rights, specialising in education, employment and public law. He has over a decade of non-executive and trustee experience, with substantial expertise in legal and higher education regulation.

Abiodun has worked within higher education regulatory frameworks for ten years, including as Deputy Chair of the Subject Pilot Panel for Law in the Teaching Excellence Framework, a national exercise assessing programme compliance for the Department for Education and the Office for Students. He served for a decade as an assessor for the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, developing a nuanced understanding of proportionality, transparency, and independence in ensuring public confidence in regulation.

Abiodun is recognised internationally as a leader in public legal education. He co-authored an influential Legal Services Board literature review on public legal education and numerous academic publications on the topic. He is the course convenor for Citizenship and the Rule of Law, the world’s largest online PLE course, with over 29,000 global participants. Abiodun also works with the Attorney General’s Office, serving as an expert rule of law trainer for its Youth Advisory Programme.

A passionate advocate for equality, diversity, and inclusion, Abiodun has implemented EDI policies in key organisations and embedded these values into strategy and governance discussions as Diversity Officer at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law.