Vanessa Havard-Williams
Biography
Vanessa Havard-Williams joined the Export Guarantees Advisory Council (EGAC) in February 2020. She was appointed Interim Chair in early 2023.
Vanessa has had a long career as a senior lawyer. She led Linklaters’ global environmental and climate change practice, founded the firm’s ESG practice and was co-head of the Risk & Resilience and Crisis Management teams. She retired from the Partnership in 2023 and continues to consult to Linklaters on these issues on a limited basis.
Vanessa has an in-depth understanding of environmental, social and governance issues; and experience in project finance with export credit agencies. She has worked internationally on issues critical to UKEF such as environment, climate and human rights (and is leading the UK Government’s Transition Finance Market Review in 2024).
Chair, Export Guarantees Advisory Council
Export Guarantees Advisory Council (EGAC) provides advice to UK Export Finance and its ministers on the policies UK Export Finance applies when doing business including:
- environmental impacts and human rights
- sustainable lending
- bribery and corruption
- disclosure, including freedom of information requests