Officers of the University

Following a successful career at the Bar, in 2004, Dame Linda became the first non-white high court judge in the UK, having been appointed a Deputy High Court Judge in 2003. At the Bar she was a member of, and chaired, a number of committees, including the Race Relations, Equal Opportunities, International, Professional Conduct and Professional Standard Committees. In 2003 she became the Chairman of the Criminal Bar Association where she set up its first Equality and Diversity sub-committee.  Whilst on the High Court Bench she was the Senior Liaison Judge for Diversity, Chair of the Magisterial Committee of the Judicial Studies Board, Chair of the International Committee of the Judicial College and a Fawcett Commissioner. 

Dame Linda is a contributing and consultant editor to a number of legal publications. She has been involved in the training of lawyers and judges both in the UK and internationally for over 20 years.

She has advised, assisted, participated and devised training in a multitude of areas including professional and judicial ethics; human rights; drug trafficking/money laundering/asset seizure; corruption; fraud; criminal law and procedure; sexual offences; expert evidence; advocacy training; judge-craft, including judgment writing and case management; evidence; sentencing; equal treatment and vulnerable witnesses.  

She has worked in/had working connections with numerous countries across the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and Europe.

Dame Linda holds seven honorary doctorates; she is a Fellow of the Judicial College; she was a member of the Court of Governors at the London School of Economics from 2006 – 2015 and chair of its Ethics Policy Committee from 2012 to 2015. She is a patron of a number of charities (including two in Sierra Leone and two in South Africa); she also sits on a number of advisory committees. She is the President of ILFA (International Lawyers for Africa). She has been named in the past as one of Britain’s most powerful black women and one of the 100 Great Black Britons and she has featured regularly in the Power 100 List of Influential Black Britons. She now chairs the Powerlist Selection Panel. She is also a member of the Premier League Equality Standards Panel.

 

In 2013 Dame Linda stepped down early from the High Court Bench to pursue her various interests, which includes the training of judges and lawyers internationally (in particular, in the Caribbean and Africa), commercial mediation, Inquiries, needs assessments and advisory work. She is an acting Judge of the Grand Court in the Grand Cayman and on the panel of Appeal court judges for the Turks and Caicos. She is the Director of Programmes at the Judicial Institute for Africa (JIFA) based at the University of Cape Town. She is also the Independent Assessor for Miscarriages of Justice Compensation and a Judicial Commissioner for the Investigatory Powers Commission. She continues to support the charities with which she has connections and mentors and supports young law students and lawyers from BaME backgrounds. She is presently engaged in an investigation for the Lloyds Banking Group.

Jim has a professional background of executive and non-executive roles in large leisure, retail and service organisations, both in the UK and overseas.

Executive roles included MD of Benskins (Allied Domecq); MD of Kingfisher Asia Ltd; MD and later Chair of Superdrug; CEO of Kingfisher Merchandise Sector; CEO of Patientline Ltd and finally as CEO of the NAAFI.

Non-executive roles included trustee and Chair of Royal Mencap Society; trustee and Chair of Graham Grange Special Educational Trust; Chair of Andrews & Partners (a residential property company wholly owned by charities) and NED of Royal Air Force Charitable Trust Enterprises Ltd.

He was a member of Council at the University of Birmingham, holding the positions of Treasurer and then Chair of Council and Pro-Chancellor. More recently he was a member and Chair of Council at the University of Surrey, and continues to serve as a Pro-Chancellor. Jim was High Sheriff of Surrey during 2018/19 and is a trustee of the High Sheriff Youth Awards.

He is currently Chair of Blackwell Park Ltd. and a trustee and Chair of the Community Foundation for Surrey.

Ruby McGregor-Smith is the President of the British Chambers of Commerce. She also chairs the Air Operators Association, is a Non Executive Director at the Department of Education, the Tideway Tunnel and Mind Gym plc.

Ruby was the Chief Executive of Mitie Group PLC, the strategic outsourcing company, employing over 65,000 people predominantly in the UK.

She joined Mitie as the Chief Financial Officer in 2002 and was the Chief Executive Officer between 2007 and 2016. Revenues grew from £500m in 2002 to £2.2 billion in 2016 with Mitie becoming the number one Facilities Management company in the UK with a significant focus on energy services. She is one of a small number of women who have held the position of Chief Executive in the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 and is the first Asian woman to be appointed in such a role within that group of companies.

She was recognised as a top 50 female world business leader by the FT in 2013. 

Ruby was also an Independent Non-Executive Director of PageGroup plc, appointed to the Board in May 2007. She chaired the Audit Committee, was a Member of Nomination and Remuneration Committees and also latterly their Senior Independent Director. PageGroup has 35 years expertise in professional services recruitment and currently employs more than 5,300 people in over 160 offices and 34 countries worldwide.

Ruby is a member of the House of Lords , having been granted a Life Peerage in 2015. She is responsible for the Independent Report to the UK Government on Race in the Workplace published in February 2017 and was the Chair of the UK Government’s Women’s Business Council between 2012 and 2016.

Kim is Chairman of SpringHill Management, a private-fund management company specialising in biotech and social venture capital investments. He is a partner of several social impact funds including Inqo Investments (South Africa), Springhill Equity Partners (US), Novastar Ventures (Kenya) and Garden Impact Investment (Singapore). He is the co-founder of the Transformational Business Network and is on the advisory boards of the John Templeton Foundation, Johnson & Johnson Citizenship Trust, PovertyCure and Sustainia.

Kim was the founder chairman of NCI Cancer Hospital (Malaysia) and the inventor of sheep monoclonal antibodies. 

As well as being a Pro-Chancellor of Surrey University, he is also a board member of the Centre for Enterprise, Markets & Ethics (Oxford) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (UK).

He is a former board member of the Saracens Rugby Club and the APEC Life Science Innovation Forum.

He is the co-author of ‘Fighting Poverty through Enterprise’ and ‘Social Impact Investing: New agenda in fighting poverty’.

Max began his Insurance career as a broker in the Aviation division of Willis Faber and Dumas in 1970. During his 28 years at Willis he was Chief Executive of Aviation, Reinsurance, Willis Faber and Dumas and Chief Operating Officer of Willis Corroon.  Max also fulfilled assignments in Japan and the USA.  In 1988 Max was elected as Chairman of Lloyd’s. After completing a three-year term as Chairman of Lloyd’s Max joined Insurance Broker Aon UK as deputy Chairman. He retired from Aon at the beginning of 2008.

Max has held posts as Chairman of the Lloyd's Insurance Brokers' Committee, President of the Insurance Institute of London, Chairman of The European Federation of Intermediary Associations and Chairman of the British Insurance Brokers Association. 

Other recent posts include Chair of Council of the University of Surrey where he is now a Pro-Chancellor, a Director of Qatar Insurance services, Director of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, Chairman of the Mitsui-Sumitomo London Companies and Chairman of ANV Syndicates Ltd. He is currently Chairman of Pioneer Underwriters Ltd and Chairman of Cobalt Insurance Holdings Ltd.