LADY BARBARA JUDGE
First Female Chairman, Institute of Directors (2015-2018)
Chairperson, Pension Protection Fund (2013-2016
Commissioner, US Securities & Exchange Commission (1980-1983)
Chairman of SOAS
Barbara Judge was appointed Chairman Emerita of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority having served as its Chairman and before that as a Director as far back as 2002. She is currently Chairman of the Pension Protection Fund.
Lady Judge started her career as a corporate lawyer for Kaye Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler in 1973, becoming a Partner in the organisation in 1978. In 1980 Lady Judge was appointed by the President as the youngest-ever Commissioner of the US Securities and Exchange Commission and initiated reforms to open the US capital markets to overseas investors and facilitate Americans investing in foreign securities. She moved to Hong Kong in 1983 as the first woman main board Executive Director of a London merchant bank, Samuel Montagu & Co. She then held a series of senior positions in banking in the US and UK.
Lady Judge served as Chair of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority from 2004 to 2010, overseeing the development and sale of its commercial arm, UKAEA Ltd, part of a major restructuring of the UK nuclear industry. During this time, she also served on the board of directors for the UK Government’s Energy Group and was a non-executive director of the then Department for Constitutional Affairs. From 2004 to 2007 she was Deputy Chair of the Financial Reporting Council and from 2007-2009 she was a public member of the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants.
Over the twenty-one years that she has lived in Great Britain, she has served on numerous boards of directors of large, medium and small companies, and has chaired many of them.
In June 2010 she was awarded Commander of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to the nuclear and financial services industries. Lady Judge received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and Juris Doctor with honours from New York University Law School.