Blake is the Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire. He was elected at the 2024 General Election on Thursday 4th July.

He is also a Central Bedfordshire Councillor, representing the villages of Gravenhurst and Shillington in Mid Beds. Blake has also served on the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Panel and Shillington Parish Council. He is Chair of the Shillington and Stondon Federation of Schools.

Before winning Mid Bedfordshire back from Labour and entering Parliament, Grant worked in The City, where he advised on and implemented wholesale capital markets regulation; Grant also held the role of head of UK Compliance for NASDAQ and has led international teams, served as company director for several companies – in both the UK and NL – and has chaired various risk committees and governance fora.

Charles joined Gallagher in 2016 to lead the delivery of an extensive change programme in the UK, focused on the integration of businesses and the creation of a scalable platform after a period of acquisition-led growth. He was appointed UK Operations Director in November of that year, to head up Gallagher’s continued investment in its operations teams.

In 2019, Charles moved into the broader role of Chief Operations Officer for Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA) as Gallagher expanded across these territories. The firm currently has fully owned subsidiaries in 15 countries across EMEA and is continuing to launch in new countries. Charles holds responsibility for technology, real estate, claims, digital, offshore, procurement, change delivery and markets.

Charles’ 30-year insurance career has seen him undertake a raft of senior executive and leadership roles, at major UK insurance businesses, including RBS Insurance and Churchill, as well as loss adjusting and claims solutions specialist Davies.

Emma is a Partner in Deloitte’s Reputation, Risk, Crisis and Resilience team – part of the Firm’s wider Risk Advisory business – and leads the Enterprise Risk Management Practice.

Emma has over 20 years’ experience in enterprise risk and helps clients deliver sustainable value from their risk approaches both for themselves and their broader stakeholder groups. Her expertise focuses on all related aspects of risk from frameworks, processes, culture, governance and reporting to risk regulation and compliance.

Outside of Deloitte, Emma is a Teaching Fellow at the University of Bath, designing and delivering the Risk Management module of the MBA programme, as well as an examiner for the Institute of Risk Management’s International Certificate in Enterprise Risk Management.

Emma lives in Bristol, has four children and is a passionate advocate of flexible working.

Kate joined the FRC as the Director of Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Affairs in May 2020. Previously she was the Head of Corporate Development at Jupiter Asset Management where she was responsible for corporate strategy, investor relations and communications. Kate was the Managing Director of Investor Relations at Lloyds Banking Group during the financial crisis before becoming a Partner at Brunswick and then at Maitland advising global clients on capital markets and communications issues.

After qualifying as a lawyer, Kate spent most of her career in the financial services sector in the UK, Europe and Australasia in senior leadership roles in distribution and alternative assets at AMP Asset Management, Henderson Global Investors and RBS Asset Management.

Mark Babington is the Executive Director of Regulatory Standards at the Financial Reporting Council.

He leads the division responsible for the FRC’s technical and public policy work covering audit, corporate reporting, corporate governance and stewardship, actuarial and digital and taxonomies.

Prior to joining the FRC’s Executive Committee, Mark led the FRC’s UK Audit Policy programme, to set measures to support greater competition in the UK audit market and work to support the reform of international standard setting for auditors, by global regulatory authorities. Before he joined the FRC, Mark had a twenty-year career in audit and was a Director at the UK National Audit Office.

Mark is an Independent Governor, Board Member and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, which is the UK public body dedicated to supporting democracy around the world. He is also a member of the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants, which sets the global Code of Ethics for the accountancy profession, and chairs IESBA’s Sustainability Task Force, tasked with developing revisions to the International Independence Standards. He also represents the FRC on the International Sustainability Standards Board’s Sustainability Standards Advisory Forum.

Michael Rasmussen is an internationally recognised pundit on governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC). With 28+ years of experience, Michael helps organisations improve GRC processes and choose technologies that are effective, efficient, and agile. He is a sought-after keynote speaker, author, and advisor and is noted as the “Father of GRC” — being the first to define and model the GRC market in 2002 while at Forrester.

With a background in science, data science, and 12 years as an officer in the Royal Navy, Stefan’s perspective on risk is that we don’t need a facelift, but a complete re-imagining of what risk is for, how it’s done, the tools we use, and who’s ‘doing’ it. ‘Decision-support’ is probably a better description of where Stefan’s tried (sometimes successfully) to take his risk efforts- in aerospace, energy, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, luxury fashion and now retail at The Cooperative Group.

Somewhat ‘Marmite’, Stefan talks passionately (excessively) about value creation and value protection; the role risk has in those conversations; building new allieships with teams who really help; how ‘it’s not enough to be right’ (risk communication and reporting), and data strategies to support better decision-making, more quickly. The last ten years have been characterised by risk transformations, including risk framework design and implementation, risk technology and reporting, and risk remediation strategies.

Tor Inge Vasshus is the founder and CEO of Corporater – a global software company that enables medium and large organisations to manage their entire business on a single platform. Tor Inge is an experienced practitioner of business management methodologies, a dynamic speaker on the topics of technology trends and integrated software solutions, and a trusted strategy advisor to CEOs of companies worldwide.