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.

Charlie Hollinrake is the Country Manager at Corporater, a global leader in providing Business-Integrated GRC solutions. With a career rooted in the digital transformation of risk and security, Charlie specializes in helping organizations move beyond siloed compliance toward a unified “Digital Twin” of their governance and performance landscape.

Prior to joining Corporater, Charlie held key leadership roles at LogicGate and KnowBe4, where he sat at the forefront of GRC process automation and the human element of cybersecurity. This dual perspective—combining technical framework agility with human-centric security awareness—allows him to offer a pragmatic, 360-degree view of operational resilience.

A vocal advocate for “GPRC,” Charlie is dedicated to helping C-suite leaders and risk professionals leverage technology to transform risk from a back-office burden into a strategic driver of business performance. At today’s panel, he brings deep expertise in navigating the complexities of the modern regulatory environment and the critical importance of integrating risk data with real-world business outcomes.

Dan has 10+ years of customer-centric sales and delivery experience supporting GRC programs in UK&I Financial Services firms. Dan has supported UK Financial Services clients in delivery of framework and policy enhancements, crisis exercising and briefing sessions in Risk Management, Operational Resilience and Third-Party Risk Management. Dan has also regularly presented on operational resilience and the extended enterprise at in-person events and on webinars.

Jessica joined the FRC in January 2023 and is Head of Corporate Governance. She has worked in the public and private sectors as an economist and governance expert, advising government, regulators and private investors on regulation and risk. Prior to joining the FRC, she was chief of staff and director of corporate affairs at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, where her role included providing advice and support to the chief executive as well as overseeing changes to the corporate governance framework during a period of mergers and organisational change.

Maureen was a civil servant for over 20 years, mostly within the different guises of the Department of business and Trade (DBT), her last position being Deputy Director Company Law and Reporting. During this time, she was responsible for leading a team considering policy initiatives, implementation considerations and supporting Ministers on legislative change. She was also involved in EU negotiations and UK implementation.

In 2017 Maureen moved on secondment to the Financial Reporting Council, working on the review of the UK Corporate Governance Code, followed by working alongside Sir James Wates and a Coalition Group of Stakeholders to introduction of the Wates Principles for Large Private Companies. In 2020 Maureen was appointed Head of Corporate Governance at the FRC and led the review of the Corporate Governance Code resulting in the new Corporate Governance Code 2024. Maureen was also instrumental in introducing assessments of reporting against the Governance Code, and now the FRC issues its ‘Annual Review of Corporate Governance’ in the Autumn each year. In 2024 Maureen was appointed Acting Director, Corporate Governance and Stewardship. In 2025 Maureen was appointed the full time Director of Corporate Governance and Stewardship following the review of the Stewardship Code.

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.