Kevin Hyland is a former UK police officer serving for 30 years investigating serious crime and heading London’s Scotland Yard Human Trafficking Unit until 2014.
He was appointed the UK’s first Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner and was elected as Ireland’s representative to the Council of Europe Experts Group on Human Trafficking until December 2022.
He is on the board of Arise, a global organisation of religious sisters working to address human trafficking and the Passage, a London-based homeless charity. He is an advisor to the Council of Europe and the OSCE.
In September 2022, he was appointed as the Strategy Director (Global) of the Santa Marta Group, a partnership of law enforcement, civil society and faith groups launched at the Vatican in 2014 endorsed by Pope Francis.
He has received numerous awards for human rights and policing, including being appointed an OBE by HM Queen Elizabeth II in 2015.