The Lord Lemos | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2025 | |
| Lord-in-Waiting | |
| Assumed office 22 July 2025 | |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| Assumed office 22 January 2025 Life peerage | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Gerard Anthony Lemos 26 February 1958 India |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | University of York |
Gerard Anthony Lemos,Baron Lemos, CMG , CBE (born 26 February 1958),is an Indian-British social policy researcher,author and life peer.
Gerard Anthony Lemos was born in India on 26 February 1958 to Ronald Lemos and Cynthia Lemos ( née Mitchell. He grew up in Croydon,London,and was privately educated at Dulwich College before studying history and English at the University of York. [1] [2]
Three years after leaving university,Lemos established ASRA Housing Association,an Asian housing association,in 1982 from the back room of a south-west London church hall. He was then the director of development of Circle 33 Housing Trust before co-founding the consultancy Lemos &Crane in 1990. [1] [3]
From 2000 to 2004,Lemos was a member of the Audit Commission and served as the first head of its housing advisory board. [3] He was a Civil Service commissioner from 2001 to 2006 and a non-executive director of the Crown Prosecution Service from 2006 to 2010. [4] He was the chairman of the Payments Council and its successor,Payments UK,from 2014 to 2018,and subsequently the lead non-executive director of HM Prison and Probation Service. [1]
Lemos was appointed to the board of trustees of the British Council in 1999 and was its acting chair from 2008 to 2010. He served as the vice-president of the British Board of Film Classification from 2008 to 2018,and has chaired English Heritage since 2023 and National Savings and Investments since 2024. [1] [2]
A long-time collaborator of Michael Young,Lemos co-founded the School for Social Entrepreneurs,designing and delivering the inaugural learning programme.
In late 2024,Lemos was nominated for a Labour Party life peerage by Prime Minister Keir Starmer. [5] [6] He was created Baron Lemos,of Thornton Heath in the London Borough of Croydon,on 22 January 2025, [7] and was introduced to the House of Lords on 3 February. [8]
Lemos was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 2001 Birthday Honours for services to the British Council. [9] He was later appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours for public and voluntary service at HM Prison and Probation Service. [10]