Keynote Speaker
Major General Susan Ridge
The first female to hold the rank of major general in the British Army, Major General Susan Ridge is a solicitor who has served as Director General of the Army Legal Services Branch from September 2015 to July 2019.
Panellists
Annette Andrews
Annette Andrews joined Lloyd’s in January 2015 as HR Director.
Annette joined Lloyd’s from Catlin where she was the Human Resources Director for the UK from December 2013. She worked closely with the UK business to develop the supporting HR strategy for the UK. Prior to this, Annette spent six years at Lloyds Banking Group where she had a number of roles within HR, including working on the team that supported the Integration process with the Bank of Scotland and three years as Head of HR for North America. On her return from the US, she was appointed as the HR Director responsible for recruitment across the Group.
She joined Ford from University as a HR Graduate Trainee, and developed through the HR function doing numerous generalist and specialist roles on a UK, International and Global basis. She completed 14 years in the Manufacturing Business and then 4 years in Ford Credit, the Financing and Insurance business.
Annette has a BA combined honours degree, an MBA and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. She is a single mum with two teenage boys.
Claire Bowler, Partner, DWF
Claire is a leading insurance lawyer and heads the Global Insurance Sector at DWF, a role she was promoted into shortly after the birth of her third child.
A partner at 31, she became a full equity partner at 34 and was one of two founding partners of DWF’s London office in 2008.
She sat on DWF’s main Strategic Board from 2016-2019 and brought diversity to the Board table at a crucial time, as the firm navigated through the complexities of being the first law firm listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange in March 2019. Claire pushes the boundaries for women in the sector, such as standing for DWF’s Strategic Board in 2016 whilst 6 months pregnant, with that also being the first time a woman had been elected to the main Board.
In 2011 Claire won the Women in the City Woman of Achievement Insurance Category award. She has featured in The Financial Times and regularly appears in the legal and insurance industry press, being a regular commentator on gender diversity as well as legal and insurance industry issues. In addition, Claire sits on the Committee of I-Win, which promotes and supports female talent across the insurance industry, and is a Freeman of the City of London.
Claire juggles a busy caseload, clients and her global role with being a mum to three very young children.
Commandant Philippa Lorimer MBE
Philippa took over as the Commanding Officer of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal’s Volunteer Corps) in July 2017.
This appointment follows a career that started as an Army officer in the Royal Corps of Signals. This included commanding soldiers on operations in Namibia and during the Gulf War in 1990/1, as well as providing aspects of security for State occasions.
She left the Army after six years to pursue a career in the Defence industry. She has worked for various companies including Racal Radio Ltd and Racal Messenger Ltd from within the Racal Electronics group and Exensor UK Ltd, selling and marketing specialist communications and security equipment to the Police, Ministry of Defence and other agencies.
Philippa is married to John and they have three sons (Rory 23, Hamish 21 and Angus 18), who keep them both very active. Her hobbies include generally trying to keep fit, fly fishing, cross country and downhill skiing, trying to train their cocker spaniel and standing on touch lines, endlessly watching their boys play rugby!
