Our Commissioners form our Board and will provide challenge, scrutiny and insight to help the Commission do its vital work.
The Commission’s independence, expertise, fairness and equality of approach play a crucial role in helping ensure its decisions and reports command confidence, so it’s vital that our Commissioners bring demonstrable specialist skills and experience into the Commission to help us achieve our aims.
Chief Commissioner
The Chief Commissioner has overall responsibility for leading and setting the strategic direction of the Commission to enable it to achieve its overarching aims and objectives. They are Chair of the Board and the Remuneration and Nomination Committee. The Chief Commissioner plays an executive role and is responsible for determining requests for conditional immunity, chairing the Immunity Requests Panel, and for the production and publication of final reports.
Chief Commissioner: Sir Declan Morgan
Sir Declan Morgan is a former Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland. He is a Judicial Commissioner at the Investigatory Powers Commission and a Supplementary Panel member of the UK Supreme Court.
Sir Declan was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 1976 and became a Queen’s Counsel in 1993. Between 2002 and 2004, he was Senior Crown Counsel for Northern Ireland. He also served for a time as Judge-In-Residence at the School of Law of Queen’s University Belfast. In 2004, Sir Declan was appointed a judge of the High Court and knighted. In 2007, he was appointed to the Family Division of the Court, and in 2008 moved to hearing cases for judicial review. He succeeded Sir Brian Kerr as Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland on 3 July 2009, retiring in July 2021.
Commissioner for Investigations
The Commissioner for Investigations is an executive member of the Board and Chair of the Investigative Oversight Committee. They are designated with the full powers and privileges of a constable to enable them to carry out specialist functions such as conducting investigations and making referrals to prosecutors. The Commissioner for Investigations also has the ability to designate ICRIR staff with the powers and privileges of a constable.
Commissioner for Investigations: Peter Sheridan
Peter Sheridan has served for the last 15 years as the CEO of Cooperation Ireland – a peace-building organisation working to address the legacy of the past and promote reconciliation. In this role, Peter personally fostered improved relationships between the United Kingdom and Ireland. He was instrumental in arranging the meeting between the late Queen and the then Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuiness in 2012. Peter was awarded a CBE in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to peace-building.
From 2003 to 2008, Peter served as Assistant Chief Constable with the PSNI, having spent 32 years policing in Northern Ireland, with frontline and neighbourhood policing experience. From 2006 to 2008 he was responsible for the Crime Operations Department, which included serious and organised crime, terrorism investigations and oversight of the C3 intelligence unit
Chief Executive Officer
The Chief Executive Officer is an executive member of the Board and is the Accounting Officer for the Commission. They Chair the Executive Committee of the Commission, overseeing the efficient and effective running of the organisation, ensuring it discharges its functions in line with all legal requirements and galvanising all staff to work in support of the Commission’s mission.
Chief Executive Officer: Tristan Pedelty
Tristan Pedelty is the Accounting Officer for the Commission and was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer until the Board has carried out an open competition for a permanent appointment. He is a public servant of over 15 years, with experience in governance, financial management and programme delivery.
Tristan was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2007, and began his career in public service at the Department for Transport. He was Deputy Director of the BBC Trust, leading negotiation work for the Trustees during the BBC’s last Royal Charter renewal. He has also undertaken roles as Deputy Director of the Implementation Unit and Head of the Transport Spending Team at HM Treasury, alongside a period working in the Prime Minister’s Office. He was a Director in the Cabinet Office with responsibility for public bodies policy. From summer 2022, Tristan was seconded as the Senior Responsible Owner to establish the Commission and became the Director of the ICRIR Programme Secretariat, supporting Sir Declan following his identification as Chief Commissioner.
Non-Executive Commissioners
The Non-Executive Commissioners bring important scrutiny, challenge and support to the Board to assist in rounded and informed decision-making. They provide a broad and diverse range of skills, experience and perspectives, including relevant international experience. They help set the strategy, challenge the Executive’s performance and play a role explaining the work of the Commission to the public. The Non-Executive Commissioners (including the Lead Non-Executive) are not involved in any specific cases or investigations that the Commission undertakes.
Lead Non-Executive Commissioner: Lindsay Todd
The Lead Non-Executive Commissioner Chairs the Audit and Risk Committee, supporting and challenging the ICRIR Board and Executive Committee on financial matters. They support the Accounting Officer in obtaining assurance as to the proper running of the Commission. The Lead Non-Executive also assists in the appraisal of the Board and supporting the Chair to lead the Board.
Lindsay Todd has substantial leadership and non-executive experience, including in the areas of finance, risk, governance, compliance and assurance. He is Chair of the Northern Ireland Local Government Officers’ Superannuation Committee and of the NI Teachers’ Pension Scheme Board.
Until retirement, Lindsay was an equity partner in PwC, where he served for nearly 25 years and held several senior positions, the final one being Head of Tax in Northern Ireland.
A former NI Judicial Appointments Commissioner, Lindsay was awarded an OBE in the 2020 New Year Honours list for services to the justice sector.
Non-Executive Commissioner: Kathleen Russ
Kathleen Russ is a former leader and Executive Chair of Travers Smith, an international law firm based in London. She is also a Council member of JUSTICE, a leading human rights charity and has public sector non-executive director experience. Kathleen has had a 30-year career as a preeminent lawyer and over a decade of senior leadership experience.
Alongside her role as Chair of Travers Smith’s Board, Kathleen has also chaired the firm’s Audit Committee and the Diversity and Inclusion Board and acted as a longstanding member of the Remuneration Committee. She has six years’ experience as a non-executive director on the Office of Tax Simplification, an independent body of HM Treasury, is a current non-executive director of British Universities and Colleges Sport and has twice been recognised as one of the 20 leading allies in the EMpower Ethnic Minority Role Model Lists, which showcase leaders who are breaking down barriers at work.
Non-Executive Commissioner: Rogelio Alonso
Rogelio Alonso is a Full Professor of Politics and Director of the Master’s in the Analysis and Prevention of Terrorism at Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid. He has lectured on Northern Ireland Politics at the University of Ulster and held various fellowships at the Institute of Irish Studies and the Institute of Governance at Queen’s University Belfast.
Rogelio was a member of the European Commission Expert Group on Violent Radicalisation, as well as senior advisor on counter-terrorism to the Spanish Government, and has led international projects on terrorism and counter-terrorism sponsored by, among others, the US Department of Defense. Rogelio is on the Editorial Board of academic journals such as Terrorism and Political Violence and Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. His publications on security and victims of terrorism have received several international awards.
Non-Executive Commissioner: Brice Dickson
Brice Dickson is Emeritus Professor of Law with expertise in human rights law and a member of the Editorial Board of the European Human Rights Law Review. He has taught at both Ulster University and Queen’s University Belfast. He served two terms as the first Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.
Brice is Emeritus Fellow of the Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and was until recently a member of the Steering Group of QUB’s Institute of Irish Studies. He also brings relevant experience of serving on the Northern Ireland Policing Board.
Other roles
While not part of the Commission, there are a number of other important roles that play a part in the challenge and scrutiny of decision making to reflect good governance practices.
Independent Member, Remuneration and Nomination Committee: Aidene Walsh
Aidene Walsh is Chair of the Payment Systems Regulator, a Non-Executive Director at the Financial Conduct Authority and an Executive Director with Banking Competition Remedies Ltd (BCR).
She serves as a Magistrate in South-West London. She was CEO of The Fairbanking Foundation, a charity supporting organisations to put customer financial well-being at the heart of their propositions.
In her 26-year banking career, Aidene held various leadership roles in international and domestic Commercial and Transaction Banking businesses. These included European Transaction Banking in Citigroup and ABN Amro, Global Network Banking in RBS and Merchant Acquiring and Commercial Cards in Lloyds Banking Group.
Independent Member, Audit and Risk Committee: Martin Pitt
Martin Pitt is a Chartered Accountant who worked as an audit partner for PricewaterhouseCoopers prior to his retirement. With over thirty years of experience providing assurance services to a range of clients, Martin specialised in the charity and public sector and was a leading expert in risk and governance.
Martin is currently Chair of the Northern Ireland Audit Office Advisory Board and chairs or sits on the Board of a range of charities providing financial expertise and advice. Martin brings a deep audit skill set to the role as independent audit committee member including experience of working with a range of regulators, being Chair of Audit Committees for a range of organisations, and formerly undertaking the role of independent audit committee member in Great Britain and Republic of Ireland ensuring the highest standards of service are maintained by the organisations in which he is involved.
Chair of the External Assurance Group: Chief Constable Kate Meynell
Chief Constable Kate Meynell took the reins at Nottinghamshire Police in December 2022. Previously the Deputy Chief Constable at Derbyshire Constabulary, she has returned to the force where she began and spent most of her career.
Kate, who grew up in Nottinghamshire, described her new role as her “dream job”. She said: “Nottinghamshire Police has a positive, strong workforce and I do feel we have the opportunity now to continue the improvements already started. I genuinely care passionately about the force and want to build on the good work that has been done and build relationships with external partners and communities.”
She spent most of her career serving with Nottinghamshire Police, including a two-and-a-half-year spell as Assistant Chief Constable when she led the force’s knife crime strategy and chaired the county strategic response to the Covid pandemic.
She is also the chair of the National Homicide Working Group, which looks into ways to improve the quality of investigations into homicide, including working on a national homicide reduction strategy.