The CIISA Board

Baroness Helena Kennedy

CIISA Board Chair

Baroness Helena Kennedy has spent her professional life giving voice to those who have least power within the system, championing civil liberties and promoting human rights. Significant skills and expertise that will help CIISA grow. She has used many public platforms – including the House of Lords, to which she was elevated in 1997 – to argue with passion, wit and humanity for social justice. Helena has been honoured by the Governments of France and Italy for her considerable work on women’s rights and education. In March 2024, Helena was appointed the Order of the Thistle, the greatest order of chivalry in Scotland in recognition of the importance of her public service, pioneering work in advancing human rights and social justice, both domestically and internationally.

Helena is a champion for law reform for women, especially relating to sexual and domestic violence and developed the defence of PTSD in the UK courts. She is recognised internationally as an authority on violence against women and children, and as one of the seminal forces in reforming the legal profession’s attitude to gender equality and minority access. In 2012 Helena led the Equality and Human Rights Commission Inquiry in Scotland addressing Human Trafficking; leading the recent Scottish Parliamentary Inquiry into Misogyny. In her international work, she has worked on sexual violence as a weapon of war and led an Inquiry into Gender Apartheid in 2023.

Dr Kienda Hoji

CIISA Board Director

Dr Kienda Hoji is a music industry lawyer, consultant, and academic with over 30 years of experience in the music and entertainment industry. He has played key roles in university leadership, most recently as a Deputy Vice Chancellor. Dr. Hoji’s expertise in the music business extends globally. He has shared his knowledge as a visiting professor at Peking University in Beijing, and as a lecturer at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, and the Institute of Cultural Studies in St Petersburg, Russia. In addition to academia, Dr. Hoji manages artists and is a founding member of the UK Music Diversity Task Force and other influential music organisations. His career is marked by a strong commitment to social justice and advocacy against discrimination in the music and entertainment industries.

Jane Preston

CIISA Board Director

Jane joins the CIISA Board with decades of experience working within the creative industries as a ballet dancer, actress and, for the past 20 years, as an multi award-winning television Producer, Director, Executive-Producer and Journalist. Jane is a mentor to young people within the television industry and sits on the Board of Women in Film and Television where she helps amplify the voices of women within the industry.

Nazir Afzal, OBE

CIISA Board Director

Nazir Afzal OBE, was Chief Crown Prosecutor for NW England and formerly Director in London. He was Chief Executive of the country’s Police & Crime Commissioners and most recently, National Adviser to the Welsh Government. During a 30 year career, has prosecuted the most high-profile cases in the country & advised on many others and led nationally on several legal topics including Violence against Women & Girls, child sexual abuse, and honour-based violence. He had responsibility for more than 100,000 prosecutions each year. His prosecutions of the so-called Rochdale grooming gang and hundreds of others were groundbreaking and changed the landscape of child protection. He is the Chancellor of the University of Manchester – the largest one site university in the U.K., sits on numerous boards and has received many accolades, in 2005, he was awarded an OBE by the Queen for his work and most recently, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Pride of Birmingham awards 2022. He was awarded the first ever “Disruptor for Good” award at the Northern Power Women Awards 2022.

Guy Parker

ASA Chief Executive and CIISA Board Director

Guy is Chief Executive of the ASA, the UK regulator of ads in all media. Responsible for executing the ASA’s strategy – AI-assisted, collective ad regulation – he oversees all functions of the ASA system. He’s also President of the International Council for Advertising Self-Regulation, the global platform for advertising self-regulation, a Board member of the Fundraising Regulator and a member of its Standards Committee, responsible for the Code of Fundraising Practice. From 2013 to 2016, Guy chaired the European Advertising Standards Alliance, the single authoritative voice on advertising self-regulation comprising national advertising standards bodies and organisations representing the advertising and media industries in Europe. He remains a Board and Executive Committee member. Guy is currently a member of the UK Government’s Online Advertising Taskforce and its Consumer Protection Partnership Strategic Group. Guy is married with three children, he lives in North London.