Maureen Beresford

Maureen was a civil servant for over 20 years, mostly within the different guises of the Department for Business Enterprise and Industrial Strategy (BEIS),  her last position being Head of Company Law and Reporting.  As part of that role she was responsible for a team who informed company law policy and supported Ministers on a number of legislative changes.

In 2017 Maureen moved on secondment to the Financial Reporting Council, working on the review of the UK Corporate Governance Code and then the introduction of the Wates Principles for Large Private Companies.  In 2020 Maureen was appointed Head of Corporate Governance at the FRC and recently completed the review of the Corporate Governance Code.  Following the retirement of David Styles, Maureen was recently appointed Acting Director, Corporate Governance and Stewardship.

Maureen Beresford

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Maureen Beresford

Will Farrell

Federated Hermes
Assistant Manager, EOS
London

Will co-leads the climate change theme at EOS, the stewardship arm of Federated Hermes Limited, where his coverage includes companies in Europe and Australia, primarily financial services, energy, chemicals, and materials. Prior to joining EOS, Will worked in the energy and infrastructure investment banking team at Macquarie Capital, where he specialised in renewable energy. Before that, Will held a number of roles across the UK climate policy space, including as a parliamentary researcher for Rt. Hon. Chris Skidmore MP on climate and energy issues, and as a climate and economic policy analyst at a diplomatic institute. He was appointed as a voluntary adviser to Rt. Hon. Alok Sharma MP, President of COP26, on preparations for COP26 after co-founding a Westminster climate policy group in 2019, which engaged MPs and Members of the House of Lords to advocate for more ambition on climate action in public policy. Will has a Bachelor’s degree (1st Class Honours) in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.