Made up of ROSL members, Central Council work hand in hand with the Director-General and Senior Leadership Team to provide strategic direction for the organisation. As members, they are your representation in the decision making process at ROSL and make sure members' interests are at the heart of what we do.
The Hon. Alexander Downer AC (ROSL Chairman) was born in Adelaide, South Australia. He has served as a career diplomat in the Australian Diplomatic Service and with the United Nations. He was a member of the Australian parliament for 24 years and spent nearly 12 of those years as Australia’s foreign minister. Mr Downer is currently the Executive Chair of the International School for Government at King’s College London.
Anne Wilkinson (ROSL Deputy Chairman) worked as a Head of Corporate HR at a local authority in London, followed by HR consultancy projects. Anne spents ten years as a Trustee for a national domestic violence charity, as well as being a volunteer Samaritan and serving on a national recruitment panel for senior volunteer roles and trustees for a national charity. She has been a ROSL member since 2012, as well as a Central Council member since 2017 and ROSL London Group committee member.
Hamish Kean (ROSL Honorary Treasurer) spent his whole working life in the finance industry, starting off with Chase Manhattan Bank and National Westminster Bank in Birmingham and London in the 1970s before moving to Jersey in 1979 when he joined Kleinwort Benson. During a 40 year career with Kleinwort Benson (now Kleinwort Hambros), he was a board member of the Channel Islands bank for nearly 20 years and, at various times, Head of Banking and Chief Credit Risk Officer as well as chair and member of various internal committees. Since retiring in June 2020, he has been a regular volunteer with the Durrell Wildlife Preservation Trust in Jersey.
Anjola-Oluwa Adeniyi leads EMEA Accounts at Securonix, a company working in cyber threat detection using Machine Learning and Big Data, with responsibility for post-sale customer success, client relationships and renewals. His previous experience includes organisations like Barclays, Aviva, BP, and CLS. He is a member of Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), holds the Institute of Directors (IoD) Diploma in Company Direction. He is a Freeman of the City of London, and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists.
Paul Arkwright CMG was until recently the UK government’s COP26 Regional Ambassador for Sub-Saharan Africa. Having left the FCDO, he has set up his own business consultancy focusing on Africa. He was previously CEO for the UK-Africa Investment Summit, British High Commissioner to Nigeria, and UK Ambassador to the Netherlands, and has served in senior posts at the FCDO in London, including as Director for the Commonwealth. He has extensive ties throughout Africa as well as in London.
Ruth Bala is a successful rising star at the Bar, ranked tier two for Banking and Finance by the Legal 500. Practising from 4 Pump Court Chambers, she can assist in promoting ROSL throughout the extensive London and international legal community as well as applying a forensic approach and exercising commercial judgment to strategy and risk. Ruth is also a Director of the Bar Mutual Indemnity Fund Ltd, the professional indemnity insurer for the Bar.
Nabeel Goheer, Assistant Secretary General, has a pivotal role within the Commonwealth Secretariat, and a wide global network both throughout the Commonwealth and beyond, in addition to a background in consultancy involving re-structuring of organisations, and PhD in Management from Judge Business School of University of Cambridge.
Alistair Harrison CMG CVO, is a former British High Commissioner to Zambia and Governor of Anguilla, currently part of the Royal Household as the Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, the liaison between HM The Queen and all the overseas High Commissioners and Ambassadors in London.
Helen Prince started her career as an advertising copywriter and soon developed a specialism in marketing and fundraising for charities. Since 2009, she has held various senior management positions in charities and cultural organisations, most recently as Head of Development at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. As a member of ROSL for more than 25 years, she is particularly focused on working with the ROSL team to develop fundraising to help the organisation grow and thrive into the future.
Atholl Swainston-Harrison studied music (violin) in South Africa before completing his army service and managing the Pro Music Orchestra and Opera Company, becoming Assistant Director of the Roodepoort City Theatre and Opera (Johannesburg) thereafter. He took on the role of Chief Executive of IAMA from 2000 after further study in London. In his spare time, he serves as a trustee on the West London Hospital Trust, Alex Simpson Smith Memorial Trust (Great Ormond Street, London) and Howard Davis Farm Trust (Jersey). He is also a council member of the Royal Philharmonic Society.
Anthony Teasdale, Director General of the European Parliament's Research Service, has had an eminent career in UK politics (special adviser to a previous Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kenneth Clarke, and Foreign Secretary, Geoffrey Howe), as well as within the European Union institutions. He is a Visiting Professor at both the LSE and Columbia University in New York. He has extensive networks in London (Parliamentarians, civil servants, policy-makers) and throughout Europe and in the US (NYC and Washington DC), which he visits regularly to enhance ties to the Parliament.
Susan E. Walton is a senior finance and digital media executive with over 25 years of experience running the global institutional investment research franchises of top tier investment banks in London, New York and Hong Kong. Susan also is an investor and entrepreneur founding a number of start-ups in the technology and digital media space. She serves as a board member and senior advisor to leading think thanks, universities, cultural institutes, social enterprises and charities including the Royal Hospital Chelsea and Charles University in Prague.
