Sir Guy Weston
Chair
Appointed by the Prime Minister, 4 November 2019. Reappointed July 2023
Guy is Chairman of the Garfield Weston Foundation and Wittington Investments Limited. A grandson of Garfield Weston and son of the late Garry Weston, Guy studied at Oxford University and INSEAD. Guy’s career began in investment banking, Morgan Grenfell & Co Ltd, before he moved to Associated British Foods plc where he became the Managing Director of Jacksons of Piccadilly and The Ryvita Co Ltd. He is Chairman of the Garfield Weston Trust for Westminster Abbey, and former Chairman of the Westminster Abbey Development Appeal and of the Bodleian Library Development Committee and is a trustee of the Imperial War Museum, the Thrombosis Research Institute, and a member of the Council of Royal College of Music. Guy is Chair of the IWM Trading Company Ltd.
Sherin Aminossehe
Appointed by the Secretary of State for Defence, March 2022.
Deputy Chair with effect from January 2026.
Sherin’s most recent role is the Ministry of Defence's first Director of Infrastructure, responsible for the strategic oversight for both global and domestic infrastructure and the SRO for Defence Estate Optimisation Portfolio worth over £5bn. She is also the MoD Race Champion. Previously she was Head of Commercial Office business at Lendlease, she was responsible for a range of regeneration projects, including the £2.4bn International Quarter London in Stratford, Silvertown and Euston, with a gross development value of over £5bn. She also led the company’s social impact strategy. Also in Whitehall, she held the dual role of Executive Director of Government Property Unit and Head of Property Profession and Function for the Civil Service. She led, devised and executed the property strategy for government, looking at how they could use their portfolios effectively to create growth as well as saving over £1bn in running costs and £3.6bn in capital receipts. Through the creation of the One Public Estate programme, she also been a strong part of the Government’s social change agenda with a particular focus on creating more homes and jobs. Until recently, Sherin was also a trustee of the Design Council and has won the Asian Women of Achievement Awards in the inaugural Real Estate, Infrastructure and Construction Category. She has been in the Property Week Power 100, 40 under 40 and Bisnow’s 51 Most Influential Women in UK Real Estate. In 2019, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from UCEM for her contributions to the built environment.
Professor Dame Janet Beer DBE
Appointed by the Prime Minister, March 2025.
Professor Dame Janet Beer was the Vice-Chancellor at Oxford Brookes 2007-2015 and at the University of Liverpool 2015-2022. She was President of Universities UK 2017-2019 and was awarded a Damehood in the New Years Honours list 2018 for services to higher education and equality and diversity. She is Chair of the Sport and Recreation Alliance; a Member of the Board of the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle; an Independent Governor of Northumbria University; a Trustee of the Imperial War Museum; Trustee of the Royal Anniversary Trust and serves on the National Leadership Advisory Board, Cabinet Office. She is also Patron of the Mark Evison Foundation which exists to provide opportunities for young people to undertake personally designed challenges.
Lieutenant General Andrew Figgures CB CBE
Appointed by the Prime Minister, February 2018. Reappointed June 2022. Extended for a nine-month term in January 2026.
Lt General Andrew Figgures was educated at Loughborough Grammar School, Welbeck College and St Catharine’s College Cambridge where he read Engineering. He was commissioned from Sandhurst into the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. He has served in Germany and the United Kingdom and on operations in Northern Ireland, the Former Republic of Yugoslavia and Iraq in 2003-4 where he was Senior British Military Representative and deputy to the US Commander. He has been on the directing staff at the Royal Military College of Science responsible for the instruction of Surveillance, Target Acquisition, Aerial Vehicles’ Guided Weapons and Emerging Technology. In 2004 he became Technical Director of the Defence Procurement Agency and Defence Logistic Organisation, Master-General of the Ordnance and a member of the Army Board. On promotion to Lieutenant General in 2006 he became Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff responsible for the Defence Equipment Plan for all three services. In 2010 on leaving the Army he was appointed to the position of Chief Executive of the British Transport Police Authority with the responsibility for policing the railways in Great Britain until 2016. General Figgures chairs IWM’s Audit Committee.
Jill Gallard CMG CVO
Appointed by the Foreign Secretary, November 2023.
Jill Gallard has been British Ambassador to Germany since November 2020. Prior to that, she was the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCDO) Deputy Political Director (2018-2020) and Director of Human Resources and FCDO Board Member (2014-2018). From 2011 to 2014 Jill served as British Ambassador to Portugal.
Bethan Hopkins CMG
Bethan is an experienced Senior National Security leader with over twenty years' experience in intelligence, cyber security and digital transformation.
Emma Loxton
Appointed by the Prime Minister, March 2025.
Emma Loxton is a partner at McKinsey & Company where she co-leads McKinsey’s work with defence, transport, and industrial companies in the UK. Emma has over 15 years’ experience advising institutions in the private sector on strategy and transformation. She has provided extensive pro bono support to arts institutions and homelessness charities in the UK on strategy and financial sustainability.
Professor Margaret MacMillan CC CH DPhil OM
Appointed by the Prime Minister, February 2019. Reappointed July 2023
Professor Margaret MacMillan (Toronto and Oxford) is an emeritus professor of History at the University of Toronto and emeritus professor of International History at Oxford University. She was Provost of Trinity College, Toronto from 2002-7 and Warden of St Antony’s College, Oxford from 2007-2017. Her research specialises in British imperial history and the international history of the 19th and 20th centuries. Her latest book is War: How Conflict Shaped Us and other publications include Paris, 1919, and The War that Ended Peace. She gave the CBC’s Massey lectures in 2015 and the BBC’s Reith Lectures in 2018. Awards include the Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction and the Governor-General’s literary award. She has honorary degrees from several universities and is an honorary Fellow of the British Academy. She is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, a Companion of Honour (UK) and Member of the Order of Merit.
Rachel Smith
Appointed by the Prime Minister, November 2023
Rachel is UK & Middle East Managing Director at SQLI Digital Experience, a digital and commerce agency, part of SQLI Group; she advises on digital, customer experience and transformation strategies. Rachel has a breadth of digital & tech expertise across multiple sectors, with a record of delivering growth, decreasing operational costs, and improving financial bottom line.
An expert at cross functional advisory, building effective teams and stakeholder engagement in multiple geographies, Rachel is known for her ability to combine multiple lenses (business, experience & tech) to drive solutions and growth. Prior to 2010, she has experience in the museums and cultural sector in digital, marketing, fundraising and communications.
Rachel was an advisory board member of Youth Dance England (now One Dance UK).
Air Marshal Edward Stringer CB CBE
Appointed by The Prime Minister, November 2020. Reappointed December 2024.
Edward is a recently retired senior RAF officer (Air Marshal/3*) whose early years were spent as a fast-jet pilot, but whose later career in higher command positions included time as the Director General of the Defence Academy, the director of military operations in the MOD, and the effective deputy chief of the RAF. He has been on the boards of the RAF, Civil Aviation Authority, and the Defence Nuclear Enterprise. Since leaving he has split his portfolio between consultancy here and overseas, and in writing articles on defence and security for the FT, D-Telegraph, Spectator and The Atlantic. He has been married for 33 years to Louise, a GP in North Yorkshire, and they have two adult children.
Mark Urban
Appointed by The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, March 2018. Reappointed June 2022
Mark Urban is the Diplomatic Editor and occasional presenter of the BBC’s Newsnight programme for whom he has covered many of the key international events of the past 30 years. He is also a prolific military historian, writing about conflicts involving the British Army from the 18th Century to the present day. He served on the board of the Royal Armouries 2012-2018. Mark held a short service limited commission (1979) and territorial commission in the Royal Tank Regiment (1980-1983).
Sheena Wagstaff
Appointed by the Prime Minister, March 2025.
Sheena Wagstaff is former Chair of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, honored in 2022 as Chair Emerita. Her tenure was distinguished by leading The Met Breuer, establishing a transnational collection of modern and contemporary art, initiating an acclaimed exhibition program plus two series of artist commissions within the context of the museum’s global collections spanning 5,000 years. As Chief Curator of Tate Modern (2001-12), she commissioned artists for the Turbine Hall and devised the exhibition program. Working at leadership level for 30 years for institutions with strong civic values, she was previously Head of Exhibitions & Displays at Tate Britain, and Director of Collections, Exhibitions & Education at the Frick Art Museum, Pittsburgh. Wagstaff has extensive experience collaborating with architects on capital design projects, including David Chipperfield Architects, Herzog & De Meuron, Selldorf Architects, and others. She serves on the Professional Fine Arts Committee of the Foundation for Art & Preservation in Embassies, Washington DC; the International Advisory Committee of Istanbul Modern; the Advisory Board of Delfina Foundation, London.
His Excellency Jay Weatherill
Ex Officio appointment as Australian High Commissioner. For biographical details please visit the Australian High Commission website.
His Excellency Ralph Goodale
Ex Officio appointment as Canadian High Commissioner. For biographical details please visit the Canadian High Commission website.
His Excellency Mr. Vikram K. Doraiswami
Ex Officio appointment as Indian High Commissioner. For biographical details please visit the Indian High Commission website.
His Excellency Hamish Cooper
Ex Officio appointment as High Commissioner for New Zealand. For biographical details please visit the New Zealand High Commission website.
His Excellency Dr Mohammad Faisal
Ex Officio appointment as High Commissioner for Pakistan. For biographical details please visit the Pakistan High Commission website.
His Excellency Jeremiah Nyamane Mamabolo
Ex Officio appointment as High Commissioner for South Africa. For biographical details please visit the South African High Commission website.
His Excellency Nimal Senadheera
Ex Officio appointment as Sri Lankan High Commissioner. For biographical details please visit the Sri Lankan High Commission website.