Lady Judge, a US-trained lawyer, has an unusually broad, international career as a senior executive, chairman and non-executive director, in both the private and public sectors.

Lady Judge received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and Juris Doctor with honours from New York University Law School.  She became a partner of the New York law firm Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays and Handler in 1978 specialising in corporate and financial transactions.

In 1980 she was appointed by the President of the United States, as the youngest ever Commissioner of the US Securities and Exchange Commission and began its efforts with respect to international securities regulation.  She also negotiated, on behalf of the US Treasury, the opening of the Tokyo stock exchange to foreign members.  In 1983 she moved to Hong Kong as the first woman main board executive director of a London merchant bank, Samuel Montagu & Co, returning to NY in 1987 as Senior Vice President and Group Head of Bankers Trust - International Private Banking.  In 1993 she moved to the UK as the first woman executive director of News International plc and thereafter led buy-ins of Scotia Haven Food Group and Whitworths Food Group, and was subsequently a founder of Private Equity Investor plc, a London listed fund of private equity funds.

She became a director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of the UK Atomic Energy Authority in 2002 and has been its Chairman since 2004, having been re-appointed in 2007.  She is also Chairman of the School of Oriental and African Studies and Deputy Chairman of Forte Energy NL.  She is a non-executive director of NV Bekaert SA (Belgium), Massey Energy Company (US) and Magna International Inc (Canada).  From 2003 to 2007 was Deputy Chairman of the UK Financial Reporting Council (the regulator of UK corporate governance and the accounting profession). 

In addition, Lady Judge was the first woman on the Board of Overseers at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and is on the board of the European, Middle East, Africa Board at the Wharton School.  She is a trustee of the Royal Academy of Art, a member of the governing body of the Ditchley Foundation and co-chairman of the UK Government Task Force on Corporate Governance, as well as a member of the Asia Task Force.  She is a Member of the Trilateral Commission and a Public Member of the International Ethics Standards Board of Accountants.

She has spoken extensively on the subjects of corporate governance and international accounting standards, and the decommissioning of nuclear power plants and the need for their continued construction.