Lady Barbara Judge, CW'66 Chairman UK Atomic Energy Authority London

Wharton Speaker >> Biography

Lady Judge, a trained commercial lawyer with both British and American citizenship, has an unusually broad and successful international career as a senior executive, chairman and non-executive director in both the private and public sectors. In June 2010 she was awarded Commander of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to the nuclear and financial services industries.

She received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and Juris Doctor with honours from New York University Law School and was a partner in a major US law firm specialising in corporate and financial transactions.

In 1980 she was appointed by the President as a Commissioner of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Thereafter she was an executive director of Samuel Montagu and News International, among others.

In July 2010 she was appointed Chairman of the UK Pension Protection Fund.  Prior to that she was Chairman of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, having been appointed in 2004 and reappointed in 2007. From 2002-2004 she was also a member of the board of directors of the Energy Group of the Department of Trade and Industry and was its representative on the Program Board, which was the predecessor to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. She is also Chairman of the Business Advisory Board of the UK National Nuclear Centre of Excellence and a member of the UK Nuclear Development Forum. In addition to this she is a member of the UAE Advisory Board for the Development of Peaceful Nuclear Energy.

Lady Judge is also a non-executive director of NV Bekaert SA (Belgium) and Magna International Inc (Canada), among others. Previously she was Deputy Chairman of the UK Financial Reporting Council as well as a Public Member of the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants, among others.

Until January 2010 she was Chairman of SOAS and is currently Chairman of its International Advisory Board. She was also the first woman member of the Board of Overseers of the Wharton School of Management.

In December 2009 she was appointed as a UK Business Ambassador, with particular responsibility for energy matters. She is also Chairman of the UCL Energy Institute (University College, London) and a Visiting Fellow at Oxford University.

Lady Judge has spoken extensively on the subjects of clean energy and the decommissioning of nuclear power plants, as well as the need for their continued construction.