Board of Trustees

Matthew is CEO and Chief Ombudsman at Ombudsman Services (OS), the UK’s energy and communications ombudsman. OS’s work aims to embed fair business practices and build trust in key regulated markets.

Prior to joining Ombudsman Services in 2015, Matthew was chief executive at the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC), a non-departmental public body based in Edinburgh. He previously worked at the Foreign and Commonwealth office, serving as British Consul in Spain. His early career was in the private sector across retail and FMCG.

He completed a doctorate in the history of Victorian and Edwardian Liverpool at the University of Oxford and has previously held non-executive roles at Museums and Galleries Scotland and the Scottish Mediation Network.

 Matthew was elected the Chair of Trustees by his peers in March 2022.

Ruth was appointed Chief Executive of the LBMA in January 2014. She is an experienced CEO, Business Advisor and Non-Executive Director in Financial Services, Market Development and Regulatory Technology. Her primary achievement so far as LBMA CEO is the governance, commercial and transparency overhaul of the London precious metals market (~$15 trillion annual turnover). She is also a human rights expert responsible for creating the Responsible Gold Guidance, the industry’s leading ethical sourcing standard.

Alex is a solicitor and partner at HFW. He predominantly advises clients on the legal issues arising from casualty management and crisis response, including salvage, wreck removal, groundings, collisions, fires and piracy, with a particular interest in container ship casualties and war risk claims. Alex has extensive experience in marine insurance advising insurers, brokers and assured in relation to H&M, war, kidnap & ransom, increased value, cargo, builder’s risks, yacht and ports & terminals insurance policies.

Alex has spent time in Dubai and has undertaken a secondment to the legal department of an oil major and a London market insurer. Alex is an Associate Member of the Association of Average Adjusters. Alex has been named as a Next Generation Lawyer in the Legal 500 UK 2017, 2018 and 2019 and a next Generation Partner in the Legal 500 UK 2020.

Russ is a retired Naval Officer and worked most recently as a Management Consultant in the Middle East. With well over 30 years at sea, he has commanded in every rank, from Lieutenant at age 29 to Captain of an Aircraft Carrier.   Having served with the UK’s Fishery Protection Squadron, he has also been a British Sea Fisheries Officer. As such, he has a passion for the sea, its communities and those who earn their living either on or from the sea. As could be expected, he has an acute awareness of the very different standards of employment and living conditions for these people.

Russ transitioned to the private sector in 2016, re-training as a Management Consultant with PA Consulting in London and then worked for a number of years in the Middle East with Kearney. In these posts, he has used his experience and knowledge of working in a large Government Department Head Office to the benefit of his clients, setting strategy and delivery mechanisms.

As such, Russ would like to use his experience at sea, newly acquired skillsets and knowledge of international organisations to the benefit of Human Rights at Sea and its priorities for action.   Russ has a reputation for finding solutions to the most intractable problems, effecting business change and transformation, and very much looks forward to becoming involved with the charity’s campaigns

Marika is an independent consultant and adviser who has worked with ASEAN-Australia Counter-Trafficking, the Regional Support Office of the Bali Process, Chatham House, IOM, OHCHR and UNODC, among others. She is the author of research reports and technical publications primarily on issues related to the international law on migrant smuggling, human trafficking, human rights and their intersections. Marika has worked in many regions, advising senators, parliamentarians and policymakers and delivering training to law enforcers, prosecutors and judges. She has spoken about human rights at sea at various international forums, particularly in the context of mixed migration flows, aggravated forms of migrant smuggling and human trafficking at sea. She has published a book titled Freedom from Religion and Human Rights Law with Routledge and holds a PhD in international human rights law.

Richard is the Managing Partner of Stavis Consulting, LLC. He was previously the CEO of Stavis Seafoods and is still very much an active as its founder. He is an internationally acknowledged seafood thought leader and innovator with over thirty-five years in the seafood community, functioning in executive, purchasing, sales, and sustainability roles.  This experience has given him insight into harvesting, farming, processing, and product standards. Over the last decade, his primary focus has been understanding, advocating for and applying best practices in sustainability, traceability, and ensuring responsible labour practices within the seafood supply chain. Additional current roles include Sustainable Fisheries Partnerships’ Squid Supplier Roundtable Industry Chairperson, Board Vice President and Treasurer of FishWise, and Advisory Committee member for the Seafood Alliance for Legality and Traceability (SALT).

Dr. Aidan McQuade, OBE, is a writer and independent human rights consultant. He was director of Anti-Slavery International from 2006 to 2017. Prior to that he worked extensively in development and humanitarian operations, including from 1996 to 2001 leading Oxfam GB’s emergency responses to the civil war in Angola. He holds a PhD from the University of Strathclyde, and is a recognised expert on forced labour and trafficking on which he regularly advises businesses, international and non-governmental organisations. He is the author of two books: a novel, The Undiscovered Country; and Ethical Leadership: moral decision-making under pressure.

Steven Haines is a Professor of Public International Law in the University of Greenwich. His research today is focused principally on Ocean Governance and the maintenance of safe and secure seas (although he continues to work in the fields of International Humanitarian Law and the law relating to international security). Prior to taking up his current post in Greenwich, he spent four years in Geneva, on the Management Board of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. He also taught as adjunct faculty at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. From 2003 to 2008 he was at Royal Holloway, University of London, as founding Head of the Department of Politics and International Relations; he was appointed to a Chair in 2006. He has a strong record of pro bono work within international civil society organizations. In Geneva he worked with Geneva Call, the NGO that encourages compliance with International Humanitarian Law by armed non-state actors. Since 2011, he has acted as Legal and Military consultant to the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, drafting International Guidelines on the Military Use of Schools in Conflict Zones (the core of the Safe Schools Declaration) that are now endorsed by almost 90 states globally. He joined Save the Children International’s Civil-Military Advisory Board in 2017, becoming its Chair in 2018. With a specialist legal interest in the Law of Armed Conflict Applicable at Sea, he was one of the peer reviewers for the International Committee of the Red Cross’s new Commentary on the Second Geneva Convention published in 2017. To Human Rights at Sea he brings not only his academic and civil society knowledge and experience but also over thirty years experience as a naval officer (from 1971 to 2003), He served at sea in a variety of surface warships, deploying to most of the world’s oceans as well as waters adjacent to the United Kingdom, and was involved in a range of maritime law enforcement roles, including as a British Sea Fisheries Officer. He also served for a total of eight years on the Naval and Central Policy Staffs in the Ministry of Defence, including on the Executive Board of the British Armed Forces’ strategic and doctrinal think-tank in Shrivenham (the JDCC, now the DCDC), having been the RN member of the MoD’s Strategic Development Study responsible for its establishment in 1999. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA), was elected a Fellow of the Nautical Institute (FNI) in 1995 and a Member of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (Sanremo, Italy) in 2010. Most recently (2019), he was elected as President/Chair of the UK Group of the International Society for Military Law and the Laws of War.