Maria Tymofienko, CEO
Maria is an international lawyer and an associate research fellow at the British Institute for International and Comparative Law (BIICL) in London. Originally from Kyiv, Maria moved to the UK in 2012 to continue her academic research at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL.) At QMUL and later at BIICL Maria managed major international assistance projects in support of Ukraine’s law reform agenda. Maria has also worked closely with civil society and parliamentary groups organising numerous delegations of Ukrainian officials and opinion leaders to the UK as well as visits by UK MPs to Ukraine to help build and strengthen UK-Ukraine relations. Following the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Maria was asked by the Conservative Party to set up Conservative Friends of Ukraine (CFU) and has been its CEO since it was launched in September 2022 as a platform for deepening cooperation and support for Ukraine, both with the UK and its allies, and to strengthen Ukraine’s defence capabilities.