A founder member of the feminist publishing company Virago Press, I worked there for over twenty years and as Managing Director for much of that time. Managing the company as an independent business, through group ownership and a management buy-out gave me wide experience in finance and strategy as well as books, politics and publishing.
After leaving Virago, I became executive Chair of The Friendly Almshouses, a charity providing sheltered accommodation for women in Brixton.
When the National Lottery Commission was set up, I was appointed a member, and later Chair, of the first group of commissioners.
My next role was as a lay member of the first Judicial Appointments Commission, a body required, amongst other objectives, ‘to have regard to the need to encourage diversity in the range of persons available for judicial selection’.
Now a member of Council at the LSE, I work as a business coach and mentor, working with individuals and running groups. I am a mentor for the Accelerator social enterprise Projects at the Young Foundation and for the Carers’ Trust. I run workshops for, and am on the advisory board of Talk for Health, another social enterprise project.