Dr Julie Maxton is the Executive Director of the Royal Society, the first woman in 350 years to hold the post. Before taking up her position at the Royal Society in 2011, Maxton was Registrar at the University of Oxford, the first woman in 550 years in the role.

She is an honorary fellow of University College Oxford, a bencher of the Middle Temple, a freeman of the Goldsmith’s Company, and a board member of Engineering UK, the Charities Aid Foundation, Haberdasher Aske’s School and of the International Advisory Board of the Blavatnik School of Governance at Oxford University.

Originally trained as a barrister at the Middle Temple, Dr Maxton combined a career as a practising lawyer with that of an academic, holding a number of senior academic positions, including those of deputy vice chancellor, professor and dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is the author of numerous articles concerned with trusts, equity, commercial and property law.