Prior to her position at St Paul's Institute, Ridpath was chief executive of the International Centre for Financial Regulation.[3] Previous to her work at the ICFR, she was executive managing director and head of ratings services, Europe, for Standard & Poor's, from 2004 to 2008, where she was responsible for Standard & Poor's rating activities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.[4] Before that she was managing director and chief credit officer, Europel based in Standard & Poor's London office, where she was responsible for the development and application of ratings policy in Europe including its global consistency.
Ridpath joined S&P in 1983 after three years as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. She worked in S&P's European network from 1986, holding a broad range of positions.[4] Ridpath spearheaded S&P's move into international securitisation whilst based in London in the late 1980s, and ran S&P-ADEF in Paris from 1990 to 1993.[2] From 1993 to 1998 Ridpath was a senior credit officer at JPMorgan Europe, rejoining S&P in 1998.[4]
She is currently also a non-executive director of the National Australia Group Europe, and a member of Council of Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs.[5]