Executive Committee 23/24

Louise Smyth

President

Louise Smyth joined Companies House in September 2017 as Chief Executive and Registrar for England and Wales.  Louise has served as President of the Corporate Registers Forum since 2021.

Before joining Companies House Louise held a number of senior positions at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), including Director of IT, Director of People, Places & Services.

Louise went on to become Chief Operating Officer in 2014, responsible for Corporate Services: IT, People, Places and Services and Finance

Bolen Ng

Executive Member

Bolen Ng has been in the New Zealand public service where he has had a varied career over 27 years.  He has a strong operational background with a people centric focus and has built cohesive operational teams and remotely managed multiple operational sites across geographical locations internationally, including (Hong Kong, Bangkok, Vietnam, the Middle East and Shanghai). Within New Zealand he has led large complex Immigration New Zealand operations. He has built collaborative relationships with internal and external stakeholders.

Bolen joined the New Zealand Business Registries, NZ Companies Office, Ministry Of Business Innovation and Employment, in 2021, as the National Manager, and Assistant Registrar and is keen to work with like minded registry counterparts to share challenges and make improvements to our registry systems for our customers whilst maintaining our regulatory role and function.

Datuk Nor Azimah

Executive Member

Nor Azimah Abdul Aziz has been appointed as CEO of the Companies Commission of Malaysia effective May 1, 2020. Prior to this appointment, she was the Deputy CEO (DCEO) of Regulatory & Enforcement and thereafter, DCEO of Corporate Services between the period of 2016 to 2020. She started her career in 1992 as an Advocate and Solicitor and from there on served as a Law Lecturer at the Accounting Department, Faculty of Business and Management, National University of Malaysia (UKM). She joined SSM as General Manager of the Corporate Policy, Planning and Development Department in 2003 and oversaw the passing of significant pieces of legislations under the purview of SSM, among others, the Companies Act 2016, Interest Schemes Act 2016, Limited Liability Partnership Act 2012 and Companies (Amendment) Act 2007. She is currently a Board Member of Audit Oversight Board, Board Member of Financial Reporting Foundation, Member of the Approval and Implementation Committee of Iskandar Regional Development Authority, Board Member of the Labuan Financial Services Authority and was elected as the Executive Committee of the Corporate Registers Forum (CRF) at the 2022 CRF Forum

Chin Li Fen

Executive Member

Li Fen has been the Deputy Chief Executive of the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) since July 2017. ACRA is the national regulator of business entities, public accountants and corporate service providers in
Singapore. As the Deputy Chief Executive of ACRA, Li Fen oversees the Business Registry function, IT and Digital Transformation, and Corporate functions which include legal services, corporate planning, communications, HR
and Finance, etc. Prior to joining ACRA, she was with the Singapore’s Inland Revenue Authority, and spent several years in tax policy and research, before holding senior leadership roles in customer service function, and corporate
areas. Li Fen holds a Bachelor of Law degree from the National University of Singapore.

Dr Geraldine Spiteri Lucas

Executive Member - Europe Region, and 2023 Conference Director

Geraldine Spiteri Lucas is a lawyer by profession who acquired a Doctor of Laws from the University of Malta and a warrant to practice in Maltese Courts.  She also read a Masters Degree in European Studies and Comparative Law.

Geraldine was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Malta Business Registry and Registrar in 2021. Previously to her appointment, she used to head the Legal and Enforcement Unit of the said entity and oversaw its overall function. She also worked for several years in the private sector with a leading Maltese law firm. She is also a member of the board of examiners for the department of Commercial Law of the University of Malta.

Monaheng Monaheng

Executive Member - Africa Region

Adv. Monaheng is the Director of One-Stop Business Facilitation Centre [OBFC] and Registrar of Companies in Lesotho. He graduated with a Masters Degree in Intellectual Property with Africa University in Zimbabwe.

On the helm of OBFC, he led the reforms in starting and doing business in Lesotho.

These saw improvement of Lesotho as investment destination on the then World Bank Doing Business Rankings Key amongst these reforms was a journey of digitization of the business registry. He has  been coopted in the steering committee that is building a National Single Window for Lesotho.

He is currently steering the process to establish Beneficial Ownership registry and corporate insolvency regime.

La Donna John

Executive Member - The Americas Region

La Donna John serves as the Director of Legal and Enforcement at the Financial Services Commission of Belize since September 2020 demonstrating expertise in navigating complex legal landscapes and ensuring regulatory compliance within the financial sector. La Donna is also an inception member of the Project Steering Committee of the Belize Companies and Corporate Affairs Registry.

She has also served as a Magistrate for the Government of Belize and is a practising Attorney-at-Law and Notary Public.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts, an Honours degree in Law and is pursuing an LLM in Corporate and Commercial Law.

Liesl McKay

Executive Member - Asia and Pacific Region

Liesl McKay is Senior Executive Leader, Registry Operations, Australian Securities & Investment Commission, Australia.

Liesl leads ASIC’s Registry function, overseeing the transition of the ASIC companies and business registers and functions from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) back to ASIC.  Prior to this, Liesl held roles as ASIC’s Senior Executive, Modernising Business Registers Program, Senior Executive Leader, Registry and Senior Executive, Registry Transformation, leading major law and technology reform programs to ASIC’s Registry business.

Liesl has more than 25 years of experience in senior leadership roles in regulation, service delivery, program delivery and business transformation.

She holds a Bachelor of Business from Monash University, a Graduate Diploma in Organisational Behaviour from Swinburne Institute of Technology and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Tuifaasisina Sieni Tualega-Voorwinden

Executive Member

Mrs. Sieni Voorwinden is the CEO of the Samoa International Finance Authority. In this role she is the Registrar and Regulator of all international entities registered and licensed in and within Samoa. She has over 15 years’ experience in international financial services.

She has been instrumental in the development of Samoa’s International Finance Sector, spearheading the establishment of the Samoa International Business Finance Centre Ltd, which is the commercial and marketing arm of the Authority. Sieni is a leading member of National Working Groups  addressing various issues relating to the International Finance Sector and is the co-lead negotiator on behalf of Samoa in Samoa’s efforts to delist from the EU Blacklist. She is the lead for Samoan delegations to the OECD Global Forum Peer Review Group on Exchange of Information for Tax transparency as well as other International Standard Setting bodies such as the Group of International Finance Centre Supervisors, Asia Pacific Group on AML/CFT. Sieni has a wealth of experience in compliance, legal and business development initiatives, and is often called upon by international
organizations to share insights on these key issues. She is a strong advocate for the Pacific Region in finding solutions for the decline in Correspondent Banking Relationships in the Pacific.

Sieni is a lawyer by profession and holds a Conjoint Degree – Bachelor of Arts and Law from University of Auckland, NZ. She is in her second term as the SIFA Chief Executive Office. Prior to her appointment as SIFA CEO in 2020, she was employed as the Chief Operations Manager – of The Cause Collective New Zealand, a Pacific social change agency based in Auckland New Zealand.

She holds the traditional chiefly titles of Tuifaasisina from her mother’s family in Falelatai and the title Toeolesulusulu from her father’s family in Satupuala, both villages on the South West Coast of Upolu in Apia Samoa. She is a proud mother of 4 and considers this to be her most challenging but most fulfilling role.

Martin Fidler Jones

General Secretary

Martin Fidler Jones joined Companies House in 2021, responsible for international affairs, following a decade in charity sector public affairs, policy and communications.  He has been CRF Secretary since 2021.

A fluent French speaker, Martin has also worked at the heart of Parliaments and their governments in Wales, the UK and the EU.

He holds an Honours degree in Economics and a Masters in International Relations, with a specialism in climate change politics.

Irena Lazarova

Assistant Secretary - Technical Workshops

Irena is a Head of Marketing and Public relations Department at Central registry of the Republic of North Macedonia

She joined the Central Registry 2008. She is responsible for:

– Coordination of external communication, customer care, maintenance and strengthening of the role and importance of the institution to target groups and strengthen the image of the Central registry.

– Taking care of accurate, timely and prompt information to the target groups for the products and services and providing customer support in realizing their commitments to and requirements.

– Planning, coordinating and supervision of the preparation of promotional material and representative of the institution, including maintainance the CMS of the service porlal.

– processing media presentation of the institution

– Organize the implementation of surveys of public opinion in matters arising from the functions of the institution

– Participation in working groups to develop new products and services and to create organizational policies and procedures of public interes.

– Project/Product Manager of the projects related to services for business and citizens.

Helen Tang

Treasurer

Before assuming the Post of the Registrar of Companies in July 2022, Miss Helen Tang served in various policy bureaux and departments of the
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, including the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, the former Home Affairs Bureau, the Government Logistics Department, the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau, the Labour and Welfare Bureau, the Department of Health, the former Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau, the former Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau, the former Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority, the former Health and Welfare Branch, the former Civil Service Branch and the former City and New
Territories Administration.