Karen is Head of Reporting at Conran Design Group and has over twenty years of client-side and agency experience in corporate and financial communications, investor relations and marketing. Her roles have included Head of European Investor Relations at Reuters Group, with responsibility for the company’s Annual Report, as well as establishing an analyst relations function at Ofcom. She works with clients to provide strategic advice, practical guidance, benchmarking and research on corporate reporting.

Jacqui Boardman is a Senior Partner and co-owner of Carnstone Partners LLP, an independent management consultancy specialising in corporate responsibility and sustainability. Through its offices in London, Shanghai and São Paulo, Carnstone advises clients on the full range of social, environmental and ethical topics – from supplier management to community investment, from environmental modelling to corporate governance.

Jacqui has over 30 years’ experience in CR and sustainability, having starting her career in the 1980s addressing public and environmental safety issues for the nuclear and major hazards industries.   Since then, Jacqui has advised clients from all sectors, including leisure, betting and gaming, retail, construction and manufacturing and has produced a number of award winning CR reports and external communications.  She has written several international reports on safety governance, labour issues and the promotion of decent work, on behalf of investors, the International Labour Organisation and the UK Health & Safety Executive.  More recently she has been helping her clients respond to the issues around modern slavery and addressing legislation, both in the UK and Internationally.

Maritz joined Barclays Investor Relations in December 2009 to run the Annual Report process, while working with the team to produce quarterly corporate reporting and manage relationships with sell side analysts and investors.

Prior to Investor Relations, Maritz worked in Barclays Group Finance for six years as a management accountant preparing consolidated accounts, writing management reports for the operational divisions, and developing the accounting systems for the Annual Report.

Maritz started his career as an accountant at ICAP plc. He is a chartered management accountant and holds a B.A Hons degree in Accounting and Finance.

Calum Chace is a best-selling author of fiction and non-fiction books and articles, focusing on the subject of artificial intelligence.  His books include Surviving AI, a non-fiction book about the promise and the challenges of AI, and Pandora's Brain, a techno-thriller about the first superintelligence.  His new book The Economic Singularity addresses the prospect of widespread technological unemployment.

He is a regular speaker on artificial intelligence and related technologies and runs a blog on the subject at www.pandoras-brain.com.  He also serves as chairman and coach for growing companies. 

Before becoming a full-time writer, Calum had a 30-year career in journalism and business, in which he was a marketer, a strategy consultant and a CEO.  He maintains his interest in business by serving as chairman and coach for a selection of growing companies.  In 2000 he co-wrote The Internet Startup Bible, a business best-seller published by Random House.

A long time ago, Calum studied philosophy at Oxford University, where he discovered that the science fiction he had been reading since boyhood was actually philosophy in fancy dress.

Laurie Fitzjohn-Sykes is the Director of Research at Tomorrow’s Company, which is a non-profit think tank that exists to inspire and enable business to be a force for good. Prior to this he worked for 8 years in investment banking and venture capital, primarily as a sell-side research analyst. He worked for Dresdner Kleinwort, Frontiers Capital and was a Vice-President in Citigroup equity research. He is author of Playing the Long Game - How to Save the West from Short-Termism (2015). He earned a double-first in Economics at Cambridge University.

Kevin leads EY’s Corporate Integrity team in the UK and Ireland.  He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and a Certified Fraud Examiner.  His team applies analytic tools and methodologies to assess sub-cultures within organisations; we know through experience that even organisations with world class mechanisms occasionally suffer scandals, often due to sub-cultures that create the conditions in which people rationalise decisions at odds with the organisation’s purpose and values.  Kevin’s team works with clients across all three lines of defence and external audit to help them use culture as another lens on risk.

Katie is a Professional Support Lawyer for the Commercial team, covering a range of areas including commercial contracts, outsourcing and intellectual property. Her work involves devising and managing the team's internal training programme (including tailored training for lawyers at different stages in their career) and supporting the team through know how and maintaining precedents. Katie also takes an active role in supporting the firm's clients in these areas, and has particular expertise on advising companies on compliance with the supply chain transparency requirements of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Before stepping into her current role, Katie worked for many years as a lawyer in the Commercial team at Addleshaw Goddard LLP, as well as working as a senior in-house lawyer. Katie combines this experience to create an approach which is commercially-focussed and mindful of the challenges faced by the firm's clients.

Recognized as a one of leading international specialist in corporate reporting  and communications, Andrey is the co-founder and managing director of Zebra Corporate Communications -  UK and Russia-based company that specializes in all kind of corporate reporting, digital production and design.

Since 2000 he leads over 200 annual reports publishing and websites design including UK and international award-winning cases.

Andrey has authored many articles and contributed to various publications, conferences, seminars, and websites on reporting and corporate communications, design and digital.

Andrey is the member of IR Society and the member of ARFI (Financial Communications and Investor Relations Alliance) BoD. Since 2011 he is the member of judging panels for the set of international annual report contests and awards.

Vincenzo is an ICAEW Chartered Accountant currently working in Investor Relations at Hays plc, the FTSE250 listed specialist recruitment group, and also sits on the Investor Relations Society’s Finance Committee. Having joined Hays in 2011, he has held a number of roles within its finance division, most recently working as Group Internal Auditor, providing advisory and assurance to the Hays Plc Audit Committee on risk management and internal control environments. Prior to Hays, he had a spell with the NHS, where he worked on recruitment programmes including overseas campaigns, with a stint in Bangalore and Kochi, India.

Gilly is a PwC UK partner, Chartered Accountant and Council Member at the ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales).  Gilly is PwC UK's Head of Audit Strategy and Transformation.  Gilly is also the Head of Regulatory Affairs and is responsible for the firm's relationships with regulators and professional bodies as well as personally leading on many areas of public policy.  Gilly is a member of PwC's Assurance Executive Board where she has responsibility for reputation and policy.

Mark leads PwC’s Corporate Reporting and Governance team here in the UK. He has over a decade of experience in advising many leading organisations on current and best practices in reporting, the effectiveness of their corporate reporting and the implementation of new reporting strategies in order to meet the needs of the capital markets and the increasing regulation around corporate reporting.

Mark is actively involved in helping to shape the future direction of corporate reporting. He sits on ICAS Corporate Reporting Committee and in his work with the International Integrated Reporting Council he: sits on the training advisory group; sat on its working group; and led PwCs role in designing, developing and hosting their Pilot Programme conferences.

He oversees PwC’s annual review of the corporate reporting practices in the FTSE 350 and is responsible for the firm’s excellence in reporting in the FTSE 100 and 250 and Governance awards at their annual Building Public Trust Awards. 

Ian has over 12 years’ experience delivering, reporting and advising on sustainable change and reputation management issues for global businesses. After graduating from Oxford University with an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Ian started his career in Strategic Finance at Barclays and went on to become their Head of Reporting, Corporate Responsibility. He moved into similar roles at Lloyds Banking Group and Linklaters before joining KPMG as their Director of Corporate Responsibility. Ian has worked on a number of key strategic change projects, including the integration of Sarbanes Oxley compliance at Group Functions level, and provided Board level crisis advice for Select Committee appearances. At MerchantCantos, he heads our Sustainability offer, advising a wide range of clients across different sectors.  

Mike has been an SRI Analyst for the past 18 years initially at Jupiter Asset Management and then at HSBC Global Equities where he established the first SRI research on the ‘sell-side’ and, most recently, at Citi Investment Research.

Over this time,  Mike has become a firm believer that rigorous sustainability analysis conducted by intelligent individuals embedded within ‘mainstream’ investment institutions via active and constructive dialogue with companies and independent experts can and does lead to better investment outcomes and a more sustainable society.

Mike believes that SRI-CONNECT is an opportunity to use the emerging capabilities of social media to empower these individuals and to improve the efficiency of the process with the ultimate objective of embedding sustainability analysis as a core component of investment research and capital allocation.

Letitia’s responsibility lies within sustainability reporting for De Beers, the primary output of which is the annual sustainability report: the Report to Society. Letitia started with the company in March 2015 originally working within the Social Performance Team, before taking on the role of acting Reporting Manager in January 2016. She joined De Beers from Rio Tinto Exploration, where she spent four years working throughout Africa in a Health, Safety, Environment and Communities Advisory position, following a Masters in Environmental Geography.