EY appoint two women to senior UK leadership roles

EY today announced the appointment of Justine Belton to its UK LLP Board and Tonia Lovell as a UK Independent Non-Executive (INE). The announcement means that six of the 10 positions on the board will be held by women.

Steve Varley, UK Chairman of EY, spoke of his pride at the firm’s continued commitment to diversity. Indeed, in Accountancy Age’s Women in Finance rankings, the top 4 positions were all held by EY staff.

“I am proud that we are further strengthening the diversity of our senior leadership. Justine’s appointment will mean that six of the 10 positions on EY’s UK LLP Board will now be held by women,” he said.

“Justine and Tonia take on their new roles at a significant time for the profession. They are both hugely experienced and I’m confident that they will bring the challenge and insight needed to further strengthen our UK leadership, governance and how we run our business,” Varley added.

Justine takes up her new role on 1 July and replaces Robert Overend, who is stepping down from the Board. Tonia joined on 1 June and will sit on EY’s UK Independent Non-Executive Oversight Committee – a governance body responsible for overseeing compliance and public interest matters in relation to EY in the UK. Tonia replaces Rosemary Martin, who retired last year and will attend Board meetings alongside EY’s two other INEs – David Thorburn and Sir Peter Westmacott.

In addition to joining the UK LLP Board, Justine Belton will take over as EY’s UK Professional Practice Director and UK Audit Compliance Principal. Justine will play a key role in the delivery of high quality audits, ensuring compliance with EY’s audit responsibilities and providing technical and learning support to the UK audit practice.

Tonia Lovell joins EY as an Independent Non-Executive, following a 20-year career at Unilever. Tonia held a number of senior global roles at Unilever, including Chief Legal Officer (and advisory member of the Unilever Leadership Executive), Company Secretary to the Unilever Group and General Counsel for Corporate Governance.