Dame Ruth was appointed to the Board of Babcock International in 2019.  She brings extensive experience of the engineering sector gained from a 37-year international career spanning senior functional and line roles at Royal Dutch Shell plc. She has experience advising government departments on strategic development and capability building. Dame Ruth has been a Non-Executive Director of Rolls Royce Holdings plc, ContourGlobal plc, Keller Group PLC and Associated British Foods plc, and was also previously a member of the finance committee of the University of Cambridge and the Chair of POWERful Women.

Dame Ruth is currently a Non-Executive Director of BT Group plc and Serendipity Capital, a venture capital investor focussed on critical technologies. She is a patron of the Women in Defence Charter, a trustee of Windsor Leadership and the White Ensign Association and a fellow of the Energy Institute.

She is a Master of Advanced Studies in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge and holds a BSc Joint Honours in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Bristol.

She was named a Dame in the 2025 New Year’s Honours List.