She was often considered one of the UK's most prominent business executives, featuring in power lists compiled by Management Today, Debrett's and BBC Radio Four's Woman's Hour, the latter describing her as "one of the best-connected women in Britain".

[7][8] Barbara Sue Singer was born on 28 December 1946 at Doctor's Hospital in Manhattan, New York City, the daughter of Marcia (Bosniak) and Jules H.

[2][9] Her father owned a small business; her mother was associate dean of students at New York Institute of Technology.

[21][22][23] Her first job after graduation was in 1969 with the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where she worked as a corporate lawyer.

[10][24] In 1980, Barbara Thomas was appointed by President Carter as a member of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington, D.C., for a five-year term.

Cifas is a not-for-profit company working to protect businesses, charities, public bodies and individuals from financial crime.

[34] In November 1983, after the birth of her son, Barbara Thomas left the SEC and moved to Hong Kong with her husband to be a regional executive director at Samuel Montagu & Co.; by that appointment she became the first woman to be appointed an executive director of a British merchant bank.

[21][35] In 1987, she became senior vice president and group head of international private banking at Bankers Trust in New York.

[41] In January 2016, Lady Judge was appointed the first female chairman of the Advisory Board of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE), succeeding Sir John Armitt.

[44] She was also a visiting fellow of the University of Oxford Saïd Business School at the Centre for Corporate Reputation.

[51] Judge was not personally criticised in the official report into the disaster, written by the US Government's Mine Safety and Health Administration.

[52] Lady Judge became a non-executive director in 2002, and in 2004 the chairman, of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).

[53] Judge's initial brief from government ministers was to "hold and fold" the UKAEA before shutting it down, at a potential loss of 2,800 jobs.

[54] These activities publicised the work of the agency amid an increase in positive sentiment towards nuclear power in the mid-'00s, with governments commissioning new reactors in order to meet carbon emission targets.

She describes her time with UKAEA as "like spinning straw into gold", referring to her initial brief to close down the agency.

[57] The Monitoring Committee is an advisory body of domestic Japanese and international experts which supervises the activities of the Task Force.

[58] Judge has argued that it is particularly appropriate for a woman to join the group, as women are typically the most vocal opponents of nuclear power.

[64] Judge said she had a "three part mission" to her tenure, using her position to open doors for women to become chief executives; to encourage the IoD to host entrepreneurship; and to encourage older workers to remain in the workforce as both employees and paid mentors to younger generations of entrepreneurs.

[64] She advocated for schools to instil self-belief and optimism in girls, and for female STEM students to be encouraged into traditionally male careers such as engineering.

"[3] Judge also wanted the IoD to enable young entrepreneurs to connect with older executives, by pairing them in an alumni programme.

[71] Judge was suspended from the role on 9 March 2018 following press reports of allegations of racism and sexism made against her in the IoD office.

[74] In her resignation letter she wrote, "I continue to strongly refute the allegations made against me and remain deeply disturbed by the gross and conspiratorial mishandling of the process which has led to the damaging circumstances in which I and the Institute are now placed".

Judge also said, "My acknowledgment that issues of race and pregnancy could complicate their removal both legally and from the standpoint of public perception is an observation I believe most lawyers would make, and that many non-lawyers also know to be true.

[84] In 2015, she was awarded "Non-Executive Director of The Year for A Public Sector Organisation" title, in respect of her chairmanship of the Pension Protection Fund.

[16] When asked by a job interview panel at the Bank of England to name her greatest accomplishment, she replied that she had once taken a nine-month sabbatical to help her son Lloyd cope with dyslexia.