Celebrating women in governance - Beyond the glass ceiling

Fiona is an alumnus of The Chartered Governance Institute Governance Leadership Program and a certified trainer and governance consultant. She is a dynamic influencer and supporter of educa-tional governance. Fiona is a published author for The Further Education Trust for Leadership, and a member of The British Educational Leadership, Management, and Administration Society.

Having spent 20 years working across boards within corporate settings, local government and the third sector, Fiona has a considerable understanding of excellence in strategic leadership and effective governance.

Bio coming soon

Juwon is Deputy Company Secretary at RPMI and RPMI Railpen, and is responsible for ensuring an effective corporate governance framework is in place for Trustees, the investment manager (regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and with £30 billion assets under management) and other associated businesses.

She has a keen interest in technology enabled corporate governance and has been instrumental in the roll out of technology solutions across her legal and company secretarial teams. Prior to her current role, Juwon’s experience includes research, subsidiary management, transaction support and regulatory compliance for UK listed entities across various organisations, including Rio Tinto and Royal Dutch Shell.

Precious Sithole is the founder and Chief Executive of Social Practice ENT, a not-for-profit accounting and consultancy social enterprise built on strong social and environmental principles.

She began her career working as an external auditor in Birmingham where she qualified as a Chartered Accountant in England and Wales, and worked with a range of clients including charities, multi-academy trusts, housing associations and large corporations with group income over £500 million. She then subsequently went on to work as an accounting and strategic consultant in London, before forming Social Practice ENT.

Precious holds a postgraduate degree in Charity Management and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She is passionate about inclusive governance and through her practice , helps charities to build racially inclusive board cultures. She also oversees the Social Practice Academy’s flagship programme – Beyond Suffrage – the aim of which is to increase the number of women from Black, Asian and Minority backgrounds serving on charity boards by 2030.

Francesca is a Client Company Secretary at TMF Group Fund Services (Guernsey) Limited, and is tasked with the assurance of corporate governance within her team.

The first of two joint winners of The Chartered Governance Institute One to Watch Award 2020, Francesca came into her role just as the first lockdown was having an effect and immediately made an impact. She really “hit the ground running”, in the words of the judges, and demonstrated adaptability and responsiveness in recognising and responding to the culture of her clients. Particularly noteworthy was the way she took a proactive approach to learning her way round a different jurisdiction’s laws and regulations in a bid to offer reassurance to a client in that jurisdiction.

She is also Company Secretary of the Scouts Association for the Bailiwick of Guernsey.