Lady Judge, CBE, Business & Industry, Debrett's 500 2016, People of Influence

Lady Judge, CBE

Chair, Institute of Directors

American-British businesswoman and lawyer Barbara Judge became the first female chair of the Institute of Directors in 2015 and her appointment heralds a new era of change at the association, of whose 34,000 members only 5,000 are women. Lady Judge hopes not only to encourage greater female representation on company boards, and by extension at the institute, but also that the IOD will become a meeting place for entrepreneurs, ‘perhaps even a mini Silicone Valley’. She began her career as a corporate lawyer and went on to become the youngest ever commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission in the early ’80s. After working in banking in Hong Kong and New York, she moved to London and became an executive director at News International. She has also worked in private equity and nuclear energy, including as chair of the UK’s Atomic Energy Authority. She cites her mother as a powerful influence, and that her greatest fear is ‘not being able to work until I’m 87 like she did’.