| Barbara Thomas Judge | |
|---|---|
Lady Judge at the World Economic Forum in 2011 |
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| Born | 28 December 1946 New York City |
| Residence | London, England, UK |
| Nationality | American and British |
| Occupation | Lawyer, businesswoman, lobbyist |
| Spouse | Sir Paul Judge |
Barbara Thomas, Lady Judge, CBE (née Barbara Sue Singer[1]; born 28 December 1946[2] in New York City), known before her second marriage as Barbara Singer Thomas, is an American lawyer, businesswoman and lobbyist who lives in London and has dual citizenship.[3] Lady Judge is Chairman Emeritus of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), Chairman of the Pension Protection Fund, and UK Business Ambassador on behalf of UK Trade & Investment.[4][5][6] She is married to Sir Paul Judge and has a son from her first marriage to Allen L. Thomas, an American lawyer.
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Barbara Singer's father had a small business. Her mother Marcia Singer was associate dean of students at New York Institute of Technology until 2011.[7][3][8] Born in Manhattan, Barbara Singer grew up in Saddle Rock, New York.[7]
In 1966 she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Pennsylvania.[9] In her subsequent studies at New York University School of Law, she specialised in tax law [10], finishing with a Juris Doctor in 1969.[11][12][9] She won numerous awards for her grades and was an editor of the New York University Law Review.[9][12]
At her first employer, Barbara Singer worked as a corporate lawyer. In 1973, she joined Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays, and Handler, where she specialised in corporate law and financial transactions and became a partner in 1978.[10] At that time she married Allen L. Thomas, a partner at her first firm.[7]
In 1980, Barbara Thomas was appointed a member of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington, D.C. for a five-year term.[13] As she was the youngest SEC commissioner, this was widely reported and a key stage in her career.[14][10] In November 1983, after the birth of her son, she resigned to become a director of the British merchant bank Samuel Montagu & Co. (now part of HSBC Private Bank[15]) and move to Hong Kong with her husband.[9][16][17] In 1987 she became senior vice president of Bankers Trust International Banking in New York.[11]
Around that time, Barbara Thomas was also involved with Lincoln Savings and Loan Association and American Continental Corporation, two companies whose collapse in 1989 would cause a major financial scandal.[14][18][19] Both companies were run by Charles Keating, for whom she lobbied with the SEC in 1988.[17][14] Later she was named in a resulting class action suit and settled out of court.[17][20]
In 1993, Barbara Thomas became an executive director of Rupert Murdoch's News International, and in 1994 she moved from New York to London with her husband and her son, whom she wanted to raise in England.[11][20][16] Later she worked in the private equity business in the UK (acquisition of Scotia Haven Food Group and Whitworths Food Group) and founded Private Equity Investor plc.[11]
Thomas was also on the Board of Overseers of the Wharton School of Management at the University of Pennsylvania and a founding director of the Lauder Institute of Management at Wharton.[11]
After her marriage to Sir Paul Judge, Lady Judge became a non-executive director in 2002, and in 2004 the chair, of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).[6] After the sale of the UKAEA's decommissioning business to Babcock International Group in 2009, she was succeeded by Roger Cashmore in 2010.[21][22] In the same year she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for "services to the Nuclear and Financial Services Industries".[23] In February 2010, she was also appointed to the International Advisory Board for the development of nuclear energy in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In February 2011, she led a trade delegation to India to discuss how British companies could take part in the construction of six giant nuclear reactors at Jaitapur on the west coast of the country.[24]
Lady Judge is the chairman of the nuclear power plant industry start-up Hyperion Power Generation.
In April 2010, Lady Judge was appointed Chairman of the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), a position that she took up in July 2010.[25] Between 2007 and 2010, Lady Judge was a Public Member of the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants, a body which develops ethical standards and guidance for use by professional accountants.[11] Additionally, from 2004 until 2007, Lady Judge was Deputy Chairman of the UK Financial Reporting Council which regulates UK corporate governance and accountants.[26]
Lady Judge is chair of the Energy Institute at University College, London.[27] In January 2006, she was appointed by the School of Oriental and African Studies in London (SOAS) as Chairman of its governing body, and is also Chairman of the advisory board for the London Middle East Institute at SOAS.[28] Elsewhere, Lady Judge is a member of the International Board of Overseers of Sabancı University, Istanbul, and a visiting fellow of the University of Oxford Saïd Business School, at the Centre for Corporate Reputation.[27]