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Secretariat

ICGN Secretariat

The ICGN Secretariat is based in London and led by the CEO, Kerrie Waring, who manages a team responsible for developing and delivering the ICGN work programme.  

Secretariat

Kerrie Waring

Kerrie Waring
Chief Executive Officer

Kerrie was appointed ICGN Chief Executive Officer in January 2014 where she leads ICGN’s work programme around the world after joining the company in 2008 as Chief Operating Officer. Under her tenure, Kerrie has transformed ICGN into a world leading governance and stewardship organisation led by investors responsible for assets of $77 trillion, based in over 40 countries.

A prominent governance commentator, Kerrie is a regular public speaker representing the global investor perspective on how governance and stewardship contribute to long-term value creation, ultimately contributing to sustainable economies, societies and the environment. She actively engages with regulators, standard setters and other capital market participants and has written extensively on governance and stewardship matters.

Kerrie serves as a Member of the Japan Financial Services Agency’s Council of Experts advising on corporate governance and investor stewardship reforms. She established the Global Network of Investor Associations in 2013 to convene the worlds most prominent investor bodies. She also established the Global Stewardship Code Network, an international group of regulators and others responsible for Code development in 2016 – both of which she chairs.

Prior to her appointment to ICGN in 2008, Kerrie directed high profile initiatives as Corporate Governance Manager at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales to highlight the important role corporate reporting and auditing play as part of the corporate governance ecosystem. Earlier, she was International Professional Development manager at the UK Institute of Directors, where she established IoD International and the Global Director Development Circle (now known as the Global Network of Director Institutes).

Kerrie is a lead author of the IFC’s Global Director Training Toolkit (2002) which has helped establish governance associations around the world and co-authored the Handbook on International Corporate Governance (2004), among a series of other publications. Kerrie was named Rising Star of Corporate Governance by the Millstein School of Corporate Governance and Performance at the Yale School of Management (2008). A chartered company secretary and fellow of ICSA, she holds a BA honors degree in international business and Japanese.

Kerrie Waring CEO 2023

Séverine Neervoort

Severine Neervoort

Séverine Neervoort
Global Policy Director

Séverine Neervoort is Global Policy Director at the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) since May 2023. She is responsible for ICGN’s policy work across governance, stewardship and sustainability topics, and engagement with regulators and standard-setters globally.  

Prior to that, Séverine was Lead ESG Policy Advisor at Norges Bank Investment Management ($1.2 trillion AuM). Through her work at the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, she helped shape ESG policies and advocate for better management of ESG risks by portfolio companies. She was a member of the Investor Advisory Group of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and was responsible for preparing the fund’s Responsible Investment Report 2022, including climate reporting.

Séverine also worked at Deutsche Bank in the Government and Regulatory Affairs Division. Prior to that, she led the EU financial services practice at a public affairs firm in Brussels, helping her clients understand the EU decision-making process and political dynamics. Severine holds a Master’s degree in European politics from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE) and Sciences Po Paris. She speaks French, English, Dutch and Italian. 

Carol Nolan Drake

Carol Nolan Drake
Governance & Stewardship Policy Manager

Carol has been ICGN’s Senior Policy Manager  since October 2021, in which she supports the Global Governance, Global Stewardship, and Natural Capital Committees, among other duties. She is also a Faculty Member of the ICGN’s Education and Training programmes.

Carol is the CEO & Founder of Carlow Consulting, LLC, a business she started in January 2017 to provide consulting on corporate governance, ESG programs and reporting, federal legislative and regulatory matters. She is a licensed attorney.

Carol’s career began as an Assistant County Prosecutor and Assistant City Attorney. She served within the administrations of three Ohio governors, one as a Cabinet director and as Chair/Vice Chair on several boards and commissions. Carol was appointed to serve on the Board of Trustees for a large institutional investor, the Ohio Deferred Compensation Board, and the School Facilities Commission. She received four resolutions from Governors for excellence in public service and nominations for the Neil V. Toth Leadership Award. Carol received two Catalyst Team Awards, the Business and Professional Women’s Outstanding Woman in the Legal Profession award and the Governor’s All-Star Award for participation on the Joint Health Care Committee.

She served five years on the Council of Institutional Investors (CII) Board, including the positions of Treasurer and Chair of the Audit and Policies Committees. Carol was the co-Chair of the ICGN Shareholder Responsibilities Committee (SHREC) for three years, under which the Committee updated the Diversity on Boards and Share Lending Guidelines. She has authored several articles on governance and ESG best practices, and regularly speaks on corporate governance issues.

Carol is a cum laude graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Claude W. Pettit College of Law, Ohio Northern University.

Carol Nolan Drake

Amane Fujimoto

Amane Fujimoto

Amane Fujimoto
Japan Advisor

Amane Fujimoto joined ICGN in January 2020 on a consultancy basis to help develop and promote ICGN’s activities in Japan. Amane is Principal at Governance & Stewardship Advisors and previously worked as Head of Corporate Value Consulting of Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank and engaged in corporate governance consulting to major Japanese companies for 15 years. Since 2014, he worked as Deputy Director of Corporate Accounting & Disclosure Division at Financial Services Agency(FSA) of Japanese Government and engaged in formulation and revision of the Corporate Governance Code in 2015 and 2018 as well as revision of the Stewardship Code in 2017 and 2020(in progress) for 5 years until December, 2019. He received MBA degree from INSEAD, France.  

Michael Irving

Michael Irving
Finance & Operations Director

Michael joined the ICGN team in November 2021 as Finance Director. His responsibilities include overseeing the finance function, managing, and maintaining the accounting policies and procedures of the ICGN. He also oversees preparation of the statutory accounts and monitoring of the risk register, ensuring that ICGN continues to grow in a financially stable and successful way.

Prior to joining ICGN, he worked for the Chartered Governance Institute for 35 years.

Michael Irving

Elizabeth Thomas

Elizabeth Thomas

Elizabeth Thomas
Events Director

Elle (Elizabeth) Thomas joined the ICGN in January 2016, as Head of Events and later headed up both communications and events. Now, as Operations & Events Director, she is responsible for a wide portfolio of activities including conferences, courses, academic meetings, press liaison, media partnerships, webinars, budgeting, I.T., data and other operational imperatives. Elle has extensive events research and management experience, having worked in this field for over ten years across a wide range of geographies and industries, but mainly focused on investments, pensions and tax issues.

Immediately prior to joining to the ICGN team, Elle was Head of Events Content for the financial services division at Incisive Media. She has an honours degree in Microbiology and Immunology from Kings College London, where she was awarded the Helen White prize for Microbiology. Although she enjoys reading about the latest scientific advances, her real passion lies in facilitating knowledge-sharing and development and she has a strong belief in the ICGN’s mission and principles. 

Andrew Spencer

Andrew Spencer
Education & Training Director

Andrew has spent almost all his career working in training and development, and much of that time with professional associations and their qualifications.

This has included training management positions at the Institute of Directors (IoD), the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). In these posts he has been responsible for teams managing a combination of training commissioning, learning technology, delivery, procurement and quality assurance in support of a range of professions and disciplines.

With the IoD, he oversaw the delivery of the courses leading to the Certificate and Diploma in Company Direction, (perquisites to Chartered Director status), across its delivery centres and led the project to overhaul the programme curriculum to include e learning. This programme included significant modules handling fundamental principles of corporate governance.

This role involved oversight of the relationships with partners delivering the programme, including universities and private training providers.

As well as professional associations, he has worked with private sector organisations across sectors including engineering (defence, rail, manufacturing/power) and gaming (yes, gaming!) - managing employee development activity using the full blend of training tools, from traditional courses to e learning.

His work in learning and development has been backed up with range of professional training and qualifications including election as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the professional association for HR and Training professionals in the UK.

Andrew Spencer

Paul Johnson

Paul Johnson

Paul Johnson
Head of Membership

Starting his career in the pharmaceutical industry, Paul spent several years working in the research centre of a major Swiss drug manufacturer, before returning to full time education. Paul joined the ICGN in February 2017 as Membership Co-ordinator. With many years’ experience in membership organisations including both the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and the Institute of Financial Accountants, Paul works both to increase the membership of the ICGN and provide a high level of care to our existing members. Paul also supports the wider ICGN Secretariat functions to provide the best membership experience for our members and the smooth running of membership operations.

Paul holds a BA (Hons) degree in Business Studies from the University of Middlesex where he graduated from in 1992.

Amiirah Nobeebaccus

Amiirah Nobeebaccus
Events & Logistics Manager

Amiirah joined the ICGN in September 2018 as the Events Logistics Coordinator and due outstanding performances has successively progressed to an Event Manager in 2023.

Her responsibilities include all event logistics for in-person events, delegate registration, handling budgets and online events as well as digital delivery of webinars, administrative and material production within the ICGN conferences. 

Prior to joining ICGN, Amiirah worked as a Logistics Coordinator at the CWC Group working on the world’s largest gas conference – WGC 2018 held in Washington DC.  She has a BA Hons degree in Advertising and Brand Communications from the University for the Creative Arts (Farnham).   

Her favourite thing about working at ICGN is getting to work with different people from all over the world and seeing the events come together after years of planning. 

Amiirah Nobeebaccus

Samantha Martin

Samantha Martin

Samantha Martin
Assistant Accountant

Sam joined the ICGN team in November 2019 as Finance Administrator. Her responsibilities include processing all sales and purchase invoices as well as managing all delegate registrations.

Prior to joining ICGN, Sam has worked in various finance roles for over 9 years in both the media and facilities industries. Sam studied accountancy at Kaplan College.

Christopher Smith

Chris Smith
Sponsorship & Marketing Executive

As of May 2023, Chris has managed sponsorship and events marketing within the ICGN Events Team.

Chris joined the ICGN in April 2022 as Marketing & Events Producer, with responsibilities including producing marketing strategy and web content for the events and education courses run by ICGN, including liaising with various external stakeholders. Chris also assisted with the administration and planning of in-person and online webinars and conferences, along with managing press releases.

Chris has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Nottingham, where he worked as a Sabbatical Officer and Chair of the Democratic Procedures’ Committee at the Students’ Union during his third year. He also holds qualifications in both Digital Marketing and Graphic Design; the latter of which he nurtures as an independent hobby during his free time.

Chris Smith

Hannah Gardner

Hannah Gardner

Hannah Gardner
Events Manager

Hannah joined ICGN in July 2022 as Education & Events Coordinator working across the Education and Events teams. In June 2023 she was promoted to Events Manager working across planning and logistics for ICGN flagship conferences. 

Hannah has worked with membership and non profit organisations for 20 years, specialising in member focused events ranging from 2000 delegate, multi stream conferences to intimate networking dinners. She has also worked on backstage branding areas and events within the music industry.

Kate Webster

Kate Webster
Marketing Director

Kate joined the ICGN team in March 2023 as Marketing Manager, before being promoted to Marketing Director from January 2024. Leading on marketing and communications for the organisation, her responsibilities include creating and delivering marketing plans to maximise the impact of ICGN’s activities, in collaboration with colleagues across ICGN. 

An experienced marketing professional, Kate has a background with non profit membership organisations that includes working with charities, a trade association, a students’ union, professional bodies, Chartered institutions and most recently professional regulator Engineering Council.

Kate Webster

Bradley Rood

Bradley Rood
Membership Development Manager

Bradley joined ICGN in October 2023 as Membership Development Manager with responsibility for the design and implementation of a pro-active membership acquisition strategy. He began his career in the City where he spent over 20 years in fixed income markets, working at organizations including CSFB, UBS, Nomura, and Chemical Bank, where he was Head of Fixed Income Sales.  His clients included central banks, supranational institutions and the largest European and Middle East pension funds and asset managers. He launched and built an award-winning Executive Search Company and has worked for professional services organizations to include Grant Thornton and an Enterprise Agency where he worked on projects supporting business growth. He has been a CEO in the not for profit sector and has worked successfully for two membership organisations where he was responsible for recruitment, engagement, and retention. Bradley is a qualified Executive Coach and set up his own coaching and leadership development company in 2005. He particularly enjoys working across the entire ICGN Secretariat and the global nature of the business.

Wendela Rang

Wendela Rang
Policy Executive

Passionate about sustainable business practices and international development policy, Wendela joined ICGN’s Policy Team in June 2023. Wendela has experience in international development policy and strategy from the United Nations, European Union, and United Kingdom’s local government. Prior to joining the ICGN, she worked at the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) within the Innovation Capacity Section. As Economic Affairs Intern at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) New York, she supported research and policy development across trade, finance, and investment.

Wendela holds a First-Class BA Politics & Philosophy from SOAS, University of London. She is fluent in English and Swedish, intermediate in Norwegian and Danish, and is learning Japanese.

Wendela Rang

Charli Pruys

cp

Charli Pruys
Events Admin Assistant
 

Charli joined the ICGN team in June 2023 as an Events Admin Assistant.  She is responsible for planning and providing support for ICGN Events. 

Prior to joining ICGN, she worked as an Events & Communication Officer at the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI).

Charli has a Bachelor of Media & Communications in Public Relations and Social Media from Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne.

Claudia Rossetti

Claudia Rossetti
Education & Training Coordinator

Claudia joined ICGN in September 2023 as the Education and Training Coordinator. She supports the organisation of all in-person and online courses for ICGN, with her responsibilities including liaison with faculty and partners, the facilitating of learner information and technical support to ensure successful delivery before, during and after all courses.

Prior to ICGN, Claudia worked for several years as a Course Coordinator for a dangerous goods training provider and brings experience in events and training production.

https://www.icgn.org/media/3316/edit?destination=/node/538

Nina Revell

Nina Revell
Executive Assistant
 

Nina joined ICGN in September 2023 as Executive Assistant to our CEO. Her responsibilities include looking after the CEO and Board of Directors. She has over 10 years’ administration experience in managing c-suite executives in several different industries and enjoys the variety of tasks the job offers on a day-to-day basis.

Prior to joining ICGN Nina worked as an Executive Assistant within a large financial services company. She has several hobbies including travelling, make up and fitness.

Abhirami Boyina

Abhirami Boyina
Intern

Abhirami joined ICGN Policy team in February 2024.  She has policy research experience from an Indian-based think tank and UK tech-start up where she was Chief Researcher as part of a student consulting project. She researched harnessing AI in the corporate sector, which sparked her interest in corporate governance. In addition, Abhirami has experience in Communications from a London-based Communications and PR agency, and  worked as a Research Journalist for a media company, providing editorial, research and social media marketing assistance.

Abhirami holds an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has presented papers at international research conferences on topics related to ‘the politics of representation’. She is fluent in English, Hindi, Telugu and is learning French.

Abhirami headshot