Maria Darby-Walker
Board Mentor
Criticaleye
Maria is an experienced non-executive director and remuneration Chair with a strong focus on ESG initiatives and climate change as well as bringing the stakeholder view – employees, customers, investors, regulators – into the Boardroom. She has international cross-sector experience ranging from banking and financial services to mining and oil & gas.
Her current roles include being Senior Independent Director and Remco Chair on AIM-listed Personal Group plc, Redwood Bank (an SME challenger bank) and Ecclesiastical Insurance Group plc. She is also a member of various audit and risk committees and Nominations and Governance Committees. Maria recently became a Trustee on the African conservation charity - Defend / National Park Rescue, run by Criticaleye friend Niall McCann.
Alongside her Board roles, Maria is an angel investor in the Manchester based e-commerce fashion business Sosandar which is listed on AIM. She became a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford in connection with Said Business School in August 2022.
Her previous NED roles include: Amigo Group plc, AIM-listed oil & gas business Gulf Keystone Petroleum plc, a Board Governor of the University of Central Lancashire, a Trustee of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (the world’s biggest professional health and safety membership organisation) and trustee of Hostage UK / International.
A qualified leadership and executive coach and mentor, she enjoys supporting potential NEDs on their journey to being plural as well as acting as a sounding board to fellow board members and CEOs. In her executive career, Maria spent over 25 years advising the C-Suite of international brand names such as Cadbury, Barclays, Rolls-Royce and Rio Tinto on strategic, corporate reputational and risk management issues.
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