Notable Alumni

Gordon Jones

Previous Executive Committee Member and CRF Conference Chairman 2006

Gordon Jones was  the Registrar of Companies for Hong Kong from 1993 to 2007.

During his time as the head of the Companies Registry, he played a key role in the modernisation and computerisation of the department’s operations, and company law and corporate governance reform, including initiating the rewrite of the Companies Ordinance.

Gordon was a driving force in the formation of the Corporate Registers Forum.  He attended the first ever meeting of the organisation in Auckland 2003 and hosted the third conference in Hong Kong 2006.  The Companies Registry of Hong Kong is a Charter Member of the CRF.

He is currently involved in a number of pro-bono activities including the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants, where he chairs the Regulatory Accountability Board. He is an Honorary Fellow of Lingnan University, the Hong Kong Institute of Directors and Hong Kong Securities Institute and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators and the Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries.

Richard "Dick" Shaw

Previous Executive Member and Conference Chairman 2008

Dick was the Director General of Corporations Canada from 1999 to 2009.

Dick retired from the Public Service but continues to contract for the World Band and other bodies in the area of business registry reform.

Dick was a strong advocate for the CRF and hosted the 2008 conference in Vancouver.  Dick attended the first ever meeting of the organisation (then called the APCRF) in Auckland 2003.  Canada is a Charter Member of the CRF.

Juthika Ramanathan

Former Executive Committee member

Ms Juthika Ramanathan was the Chief Executive of the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA),Singapore from 2004 to 2013 where she oversaw the operations as well as the formulation of policies and law reform relating to regulatory framework for business entities and public accountants.

Ms Juthika is now the Chief Executive of the Supreme Court of Singapore (since 1 February 2013).  She oversees the administration and operations of the Supreme Court.

As the Chief Executive of ACRA Ms Juthika attended the first ever meeting of the CRF.  Ms Juthika hosted two CRF conferences; one in 2007 (co-hosted with Malaysia) and again in 2011.

Ms Juthika, a former solicitor in commercial practice, received her Bachelor of Laws Degree from the National University of Singapore.

Gareth Jones OBE

Previous Executive Committee Member

Gareth Jones was formerly the Registrar of Companies for the UK and Chief Executive of Companies House from 2007 to 2012.

Gareth retired from the UK Government Civil Service in 2015 after a 37 year career which included a wide variety of roles.  These included working directly to a Cabinet Minister in the Margaret Thatcher Government, Director of Environment and Agriculture, Director General and Board member with responsibility for Natural Resources and, of course, Registrar of Companies and Chief Executive of Companies House .

Since his retirement, Gareth has continued to work in the area of registries.  He holds a role with a registry software company as their Vice President – Strategy, advising on a range of strategic challenges for the company as it grows and develops worldwide market opportunities, while helping Governments improve and modernise their Registries.  Gareth is also Chairman of the board of the Association of Company Registration Agents for he UK.

Gareth was an active member of the Executive Committee and a strong supporter of the mission of the Corporate Registers Forum.  Under Gareth’s leadership, Companies House became a charter member of the CRF.

The late Rashid Malik

Previous Executive Committee member

Mr. Rashid Malik  was voted on to the Executive Committee for the CRF at the AGM in April 2007.  Tragically he died in an accident in 2008.

Mr. Rashid Malik, a chartered accountant, joined the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SEC) as Commissioner in 2005. He lead the Company Law and Support Services Divisions of the SEC.

Mr. Malik had over 30 years of professional and working experience of business operation, management, finance and accounting. He was a qualified Chartered Accountant from England & Wales and a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan. He held a Masters Degree in Economics.

Rashid was a strong supporter of the CRF.

Tim Moss CBE

Past President and Executive Committee Member

Tim Moss was the former Registrar of Companies for the UK and Chief Executive of Companies House. He moved from that role to become the Comptroller General and CEO of UK Intellectual Property Office.

He was appointed to the role of Registrar in March 2012. He was the 31st Registrar in a line going back to 1844.

Tim was awarded the CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2016.

Tim joined CH in 2002 and has held many senior positions within the organisation covering operational and corporate functions, leading the digital transformation, various legislative reforms and the move to open data. Before joining CH Tim spent 12 years in senior operational roles in the manufacturing industry, he has a Natural Sciences degree from Cambridge University, an MBA from Swansea University and lives on a farm in South Wales.

In 2013 Tim became the first ever President of CRF; he sat on the ECRF Steering Committee and was Conference Director for the Joint CRF & ECRF Conference in 2016.

YA Datuk Abdul Karim bin Abdul Jalil

Former Executive Committee Member and Conference Chair 2007

Datuk Abul Karim was formerly the Chief Executive and Registrar of Companies for the Companies Commission of Malaysia.

Datuk Abul Karim was an enthusiastic supporter of the CRF and worked with his colleagues in the Singapore registry to cohost a conference in 2007.  Since leaving the Companies Commission Datuk Abul Karim was appointed to the bench of the Court of Appeal for Malaysia.

His Lordship was appointed as Judicial Commissioner in the High Court of Melaka in 2012.
His Lordship was appointed as High Court Judge at the High Court of Malacca in 2014.
His Lordship was appointed as the Court of Appeal Judge in 2016 up to now.

Neville Harris QSO

Past Conference Chair

Neville Harris was the New Zealand Registrar of Companies from 1989-2013 and the Commissioner of Patents, Trade Marks and Plant Variety Rights from 1997-2013.

A strong advocate for the formation of the CRF, Neville supported his office (The New Zealand Companies Office) when the idea of holding the first event in 2003 was considered.

Neville was awarded the Companion of the Queen’s Service Order for services to the state in the New Year’s honours list 2013.

Neville currently works as a consultant and is on the board of directors of several companies.  Drawing on his his experience in prominent roles in the management and supervision of the regulatory framework for corporations, securities, insolvency, intellectual property rights and the crown mineral estate.

Kenneth Yap

Former Executive Committee Member

Mr Kenneth Yap, was formerly the Chief Executive of the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, Singapore from 1 February 2013 to 31 March 2017. He was in charge of the operations of ACRA which is the national regulator of business entities, public accountants and corporate service providers in Singapore.

Mr Yap was a strong supporter and advocate for the Corporate Registers Forum. During his tenure as a committee member, he hosted CRF’s first Technical Workshop in 2015.

Mr Yap, who is a Legal Service Officer, returned to the Singapore Legal Service to assume his appointment as a District Court Judge.

Justin Hygate

CRF Secretary 2003 -2011

Justin Hygate formerly held the role of Group Manager Business Registries with the New Zealand Companies Office.  In that role Justin was privileged to attend the International Association for Commercial Administrations (www.iaca.org) in 2000 and 2002.  Justin recognised the need for a meeting of common law jurisdictions to promote the development of registries and their role across the Commonwealth.

Justin was responsible for convening and hosting the first ever meeting of the then Asia Pacific Corporate Registers Forum in Auckland in 2003.  The meeting was a success and in 2005 a second meeting was hosted in Australia.  Justin assumed the role of Secretary for the CRF until leaving government service in 2011.

Justin remains active in the registry community as a consultant with a registry software vendor. Justin has only missed one CRF (Brazil) since its inception.

Ada Chung

Previous Executive Committee Member and Conference Chair 2017

Ms Ada Chung served as the Registrar of Companies for Hong Kong from 2007 until 2020.  Ms Chung took up the role of the privacy commissioner for Hong Kong in September 2020.

In her role on the CRF Executive Committee Ms Chung served as the CRF Treasurer for thirteen years.  Ms Chung hosted the 2017 CRF Annual Conference.

Ms Chung is a barrister-at-law and a Certified Public Accountant.  She was appointed as the Registrar of Companies of Hong Kong in August 2007 and in the role was heavily involved in the rewrite of the Companies Ordinance, the implementation of the new Companies Ordinance and the introduction of electronic company incorporation and electronic filing of company information in Hong Kong.

As a representative of the Financial Secretary, Ms Chung is an ex-officio council member of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants.  She also sat on the Financial Reporting Council.  Before her appointment as the Registrar, she was a Deputy Law Officer and headed the Civil Litigation Unit of the Civil Division of the Department of Justice.

Rosanne Bell

Past President and Executive Committee member

Rosanne’s involvement with the CRF goes back to 2007 when she was appointed to the Executive Committee.  Rosanne held the role of President of the CRF from 2017 to August 2021.

Rosanne formerly led the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)’s Registry team.

In this role, she oversaw the administration of over 30 legal registers, registers of companies and business names, and a range of professional and other registers.

The Registry team handled more than 3 million lodgements and facilitates more 120 million searches each year. Rosanne had responsibility for ASIC’s Customer Contact Centre, which handles over 900,000 enquiries annually. Rosanne implemented major reforms including the National Business Names register and a new Financial Advisers Register.

She also led ASIC’s work with government to substantially modernise business registers. Rosanne is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds a Bachelor of Commerce and postgraduate qualifications.

With the move of the Australian business registries from ASIC to the Australian Taxation Office in 2021 Rosanne stepped down from her roles on the CRF Executive.

Rosanne was an evangelist for the work of the CRF internationally.  She participated in numerous conferences and technical workshops along with working collegially with both the IACA and EBRA registry organisations.

Michael Brosnahan

CRF Secretary 2011-2021

Since 2005 Michael has been the Registry Services Manager at the New Zealand Companies Office.  Between 1993 and 2005, Michael held the position of ICT General Operations Manager for the Ministry of Economic Development.

Within the Companies Office, Michael is responsible for the delivery of all New Zealand Companies Office services mainly through electronic systems and the internet for registers relating to Companies, Personal Properties Securities, Superannuation Funds, Incorporated Societies, Building Societies, Charitable Trusts, Unit Trusts, Friendly Societies Motor Vehicles Traders and Credit Unions.  Michael also oversees the New Zealand Companies Office international registry reform projects within developing countries, working extensively in the Pacific region and in Africa.

Michael held the executive position of Secretariat for the Corporate Registers Forum (CRF) from 2011-2021.