Adrian Smith OBE

ACE Chair –  Chief Executive, Reclaim Fund Ltd.

Adrian has led Reclaim Fund Ltd. as Chief Executive since 2010. As the operator of the UK’s Dormant Asset Scheme, Reclaim Fund Ltd makes it possible for monies in dormant financial products to be used to help social and environmental initiatives across the UK. Over the last four years, Adrian has been at the forefront of an agenda for expansion of the Scheme, successfully culminating in new legislation and £900 Million being made available to good causes. 

Awarded an OBE for services to the UK Finance Sector in 2022, Adrian holds an MBA in Leadership & Sustainability and has over 30 years leadership experience in regulated Financial Services companies. Previous roles include senior leader at Britannia Building Society, Bank of Ireland and Bristol & West Building Society.  

Adrian also has a keen interest in improving prospects for rural communities and is Vice Chair of Plunkett UK. 

Keith Fraser 

ACE Vice-Chair –  Chair, Local Partnerships

 Keith Chairs Local Partnerships and is also a Non-Executive Director/Trustee at The Work Force Development Trust Limited, Advisor for the National Police Chiefs Council Digital Engagement Project for Young People, and Patron of Employability UK. Keith was made a Commissioner for the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities on 16 July 2020.  In January 2018, Keith was appointed as a member of the Youth Justice Board and served as its Chair between April 2020 and December 2025.

Prior to this, Keith was a Superintendent and Chief Inspector in the West Midlands Police, having joined as a Constable, during which time he produced the 2016-19 Preventing Gang Involvement and Youth Violence strategy.

Keith also produced the business plan for City of Wolverhampton council where he was the Chair of the authority’s statutory Youth Offending Management Board. He led an innovative preventative project, targeting over 7,000 children and young adults, working with Sport England and was the Strategic Police Lead for the Prince’s Trust across the West Midlands.

Keith also holds a number of not for profit NED roles, and is passionate and committed to delivering in the public sector.

 

Lawrence M. Weiss

ACE Treasurer –  Chair, Reclaim Fund Ltd.

Lawrence has held a number of senior Board and executive roles across the financial services and international trade sectors.

In addition to his private sector Non-Executive Board positions, he has served as a Board member of UK Export Finance, the UK’s export credit agency, where he also chaired the Audit Committee, and was a member of the Audit and Risk Committee of the Department for International Trade.

He was previously Chief Executive Officer of Bank Leumi (UK) plc, where he also chaired its subsidiary companies. Prior to this, he spent nearly two decades at Glencore UK Ltd., holding several senior leadership positions, including Chief Global Credit Risk Officer for the Energy Group, and Chief Financial Officer and subsequently Chief Executive Officer of TMR Energy Ltd, a joint venture between Glencore and TOTAL S.A.

During this time, he also chaired both the Trustees of the company’s Pension Scheme and the Glencore Foundation for Education and Welfare. Lawrence began his career at The Chase Manhattan Bank where he rose to become a Director of Chase Investment Bank Ltd, one of the European market leaders in syndicated lending and project finance.

Carolyn Bartlett

Elected Board Member – Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, Valuation Office Agency

Carolyn has been the joint Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer at the Valuation Office Agency since February 2019. She is responsible for the Agency’s strategy, policy, transformation and data functions, and sits on its Executive Committee and Board.

Before joining the VOA, Carolyn had a 20-year career in Whitehall, spanning Private Office, policy, strategy, communications, transformation and operational roles in a number of departments including the Home Office and Cabinet Office.
As one of the most senior job-shares in Government, Carolyn is passionate about promoting flexible working and demonstrating that alternative working patterns need not be a barrier to progression.

Carolyn has a degree from the University of Cambridge. She is married with two daughters, and is a Trustee of a mental health charity.

Tom Clementi

Elected Board Member – Chief Executive Officer, Pool Reinsurance

Tom Clementi was appointed CEO of Pool Re, the UK’s largest terrorism reinsurer and an Arm’s Length Body of HM Treasury, in April 2022. Prior to joining Pool Re, he was CEO of MS Amlin, a Lloyd’s underwriting business, where he spent 13 years in various management roles. Tom was a Director of the Lloyd’s Market Association between 2017 and 2020 and a common Councillor in the City of London between 2017 and 2022. Prior to insurance Tom worked as a solicitor at Linklaters. He currently serves as a Governor of the Royal Ballet School and is a member of the National Preparedness Commission, the CBI’s Financial Services Council, and the OECD’s High Level Advisory Board on Catastrophic Risks. Tom has an MBA from INSEAD business school and a degree from Oxford University.

Ben Connah

Elected Board Member – Secretary, UK Public Covid-19 Inquiry

Ben Connah has been Secretary to the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry since it was established in mid-2022; before that he had led the team setting up the Inquiry. He is responsible for supporting the Inquiry’s chair, Baroness Hallett, to deliver the Inquiry fairly and efficiently in line with her terms of reference. Before setting up the Covid-19 Inquiry, Ben spent more than 20 years in Whitehall, first at the Ministry of Justice and then at the Department for Education. His specialism has been social policy – working on issues including victims of crime, children in care and legal aid. He has also held a range of governance, private office and strategy roles. Immediately before the pandemic, Ben sponsored the Student Loans Company, one of the UK’s largest arm’s length bodies.

Ben lives in London and is a trustee of a small charity funding medical projects in east Africa and was until recently trustee of an education and enrichment charity based in north-west London.

Sam Hartley

Elected Board Member – Director of Policy, Research and Voter Engagement, The Electoral Commission 

Sam leads the Electoral Commission’s work to understand and analyse the challenges to well-run elections and referendums in the UK, and the Commission’s extensive programme of voter education and engagement.

Sam joined the Commission in 2025, having previously established and led the statutory public inquiry into the Omagh bombing. He had previously also been Director of Policy, Research and Analysis and Deputy Secretary at the UK Covid-19 public inquiry.

Sam has a background in senior leadership in the public sector, having led arm’s length bodies in the constitutional and transport fields. He has held other senior roles in healthcare and constitutional regulators, as well as in the Cabinet Office. He is on the board of the Boundary Commission for Wales, and has previously been the independent member of a government department Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, and an independent member of a local authority Standards Committee.

Elysia McCaffrey

Elected Board Member – Chief Executive, Marine Management Organisation

Since beginning her civil service career in 2002, Elysia McCaffrey has demonstrated a consistent focus and passion for protecting the most vulnerable in our society.  She currently serves as the Chief Executive of the Marine Management Organisation. 

Previously, Elysia was the CEO of the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), a position she held between 2021 and 2026. In this role, she led initiatives to stop worker exploitation, focusing on protecting workers’ rights and promoting ethical labour practices, underscoring her commitment to ensure a fair and just environment for all workers.

Elysia has over two decades of experience in civil and public service, marked by her strong commitment to public welfare. Her career includes key roles such as Deputy Director of Infrastructure in the Cabinet Office, Interim Director of the Government Equalities Office, and Deputy Head of the Government Equalities Office. Additionally, she led the Department for Education’s transformation for four years.

Alex Robertson

Elected Board Member – Chief Executive, Transport Focus

Alex spent over five years at Transport for London early in his career working in policy and public affairs. This was followed by a brief spell at the Catholic Agency For Overseas Development (CAFOD) before moving on to senior roles in arms-length bodies. The first of these was at the Electoral Commission which he joined in 2008 as the Head of Public Affairs and Media before being promoted to the Director of Communications two years later and serving as the Programme Director for the Scottish Referendum (2014) and EU Referendum (2016). In 2016 Alex became the Executive Director for Strategy and Operations at the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) and then Chief Operating Officer at the Pensions Ombudsman in 2020. Alex is currently Chief Executive of Transport Focus, a post he took up in November 2023. Transport Focus is an arms-length body of the Department for Transport responsible for independently representing the interests of rail users in Great Britain, and bus and Strategic Road Network (motorways and major A-roads) users in England (outside London).

In his spare time Alex has been a coach of his daughter’s football team for the past five years.

Natalie Prosser

Elected Board Member – Chief Executive, Office for Environmental Protection

Natalie Prosser is a solicitor by background, with seventeen years in government, specialising in public and regulatory law, regulatory operations and governance. She is currently the CEO of the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) where she has been since February 2021. Natalie leads all the work of the OEP including annual scrutiny of government progress against its legally binding environmental goals and targets, investigating and enforcing against public bodies responsibilities under environmental laws, assessing how well environmental laws are being used in practice and providing advice to government on new environmental laws.

Her previous roles have included General Counsel at the Gambling Commission;  Director of Operations, Vocational and Technical Qualifications and Director of Legal at Ofqual; and regulatory and policy lead on the independent Farm Inspection and Regulation Review.

Michelle Russell

Elected Board Member – Chief Executive, Security Industry Authority

Michelle became Chief Executive of the SIA in November 2021 and has over 25 years’ experience of working in regulation and regulatory environments in both the public and private sectors. She held the position of Acting Chief Executive at the SIA from October 2020 and before that a Director position, leading the SIA’s criminal enforcement and regulatory inspection functions.

Michelle joined the SIA from the Charity Commission where she was the Director of Investigations, Monitoring and Enforcement for over 5 years. In her career Michelle has developed various national strategies on counter-terrorism, fraud and financial abuse, and safeguarding and sat on a number of cross government and industry groups, particularly on terrorism and serious crime issues. She has  held various other operational and compliance roles, and started her career as a qualified solicitor in the private and then public sector.