Date: Tuesday 11 May 2010
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker: Baroness Catherine Ashton
Chair: Howard Davies

UPDATE, Tuesday 11 May, 12noon. We are sorry for the short notice, but due to security reasons bags will not be allowed into the event. Small handbags will be allowed but at the discretion of security staff subject to a bag search. There will be limited cloakroom facilities at the venue entrance for leaving bags so if possible please make alternative arrangements to leave your belongings elsewhere before you arrive. The cloakroom will close as the event starts, not reopening until the event is over. We encourage people to arrive at the venue early. Doors to the theatre will open at around 5.45pm. LSE regrets that this may cause some inconvenience.

Baroness Catherine Ashton is the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Vice President of the European Commission. Prior to this she served as European Commissioner for Trade.

Catherine Ashton was appointed Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Queen's Privy Council in Gordon Brown's first Cabinet in June 2007. As well as Leader of the Lords, she took responsibility in the House of Lords for equalities issues. She took the Lisbon Treaty through the UK's upper chamber.

She worked in the public, private and voluntary sectory and from 1983-89 she was Director of Business in the Community, and established the Employers' Forum on Disability, Opportunity Now, and the Windsor Fellowship.

She chaired the Health Authority in Hertfordshire from 1998 to 2001, and became a Vice President of the National Council for One Parent Families.

In 1999 Catherine Ashton became a life peer. She then took on a ministerial position (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State) in the Department for Education and Skills in 2001, and subsequently in the Department for Constitutional Affairs and Ministry of Justice. She became a Privy Councillor in May 2006.

In 2005 Catherine Ashton was voted House Magazine Minister of the Year and Channel 4 Peer of the Year. In 2006, she was voted Stonewall Politician of the Year.

Media queries: please contact the Press Office if you would like to reserve a press seat or have a media query about this event, email pressoffice@lse.ac.uk

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Accessibility

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