Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith

Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith CBE is an established Chair, former FTSE Chief Executive and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). She currently heads the boards of AirportsUK and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, as well as acting as Deputy Chair for the Tideway Tunnel and non-Executive Director for AtkinsRealis Inc, Thales SA and Everyman Media Group plc. Formerly President of the British Chambers of Commerce, she is also currently President of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Ruby’s business background included time as Chief Executive of Mitie Group plc between 2007 and 2016, making her one of a small number of women who have been Chief Executive in the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250, and the first Asian woman to be appointed these roles within that group of companies. She was recognised as a top 50 female world business leader by the FT in 2013.

Since, 2015, Ruby has sat in the House of Lords, having been granted a Life Peerage and was responsible for the Independent Report to the UK Government on Race in the Workplace, published in February 2017.  She chaired the UK Government’s Women’s Business Council between 2012 and 2016 and was a Business Trade Ambassador for the UK from 2012 to 2019. Additionally, the UK Government made her the In-Work Progression Commissioner in 2020 and she now sits as a Member of the Labour Market Advisory Board.

In 2015, Ruby was awarded the ICAEW and the accounting profession’s most prestigious award, the Outstanding Achievement Award, in 2015.  She has received honorary doctorates from Cranfield University, Kingston University and the University of the West of England.

Ruby is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award in 2015, the profession’s most prestigious Award.