Dame Victoria Mary Taylor Heywood, DBE (born June 1956) a member of the Board of the National Theatre. She is a former Chairman of Mountview Drama Academy, the RSA, Royal Society of Arts. [1] She is the former Chairman of 14-18 Now the UK's five year commemoration of the First World War and Unboxed:_Creativity_in_the_UK. She is the former executive director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Court Theatre, London, and ran the London International Festival of Theatre. She was chief executive of the Contact Theatre, Manchester. [2]
Already Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to the arts. [3]
Dame Penelope Anne Constance Keith, is an English actress and presenter, active in film, radio, stage and television and primarily known for her roles in the British sitcoms The Good Life and To the Manor Born. She succeeded Lord Olivier as president of the Actors' Benevolent Fund after his death in 1989, and was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to the arts and to charity.
Joan Ann Plowright, Baroness Olivier,, professionally known as Dame Joan Plowright, is an English retired actress whose career spanned over six decades. She has won two Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award and has been nominated for an Academy Award, an Emmy and two BAFTA Awards. She was the second of only four actresses to have won two Golden Globes in the same year. She won the Laurence Olivier Award for Actress of the Year in a New Play in 1978 for Filumena.
Dame Jennifer Gita Abramsky,, is a British media producer, philanthropist and Chancellor of the University of East Anglia. She was chairman of the UK's National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF). Until her retirement from the BBC, Abramsky was its most senior woman employee; she was Director of Audio and Music.
Dame Hermione Lee, is a British biographer, literary critic and academic. She is a former President of Wolfson College, Oxford, and a former Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature in the University of Oxford and Professorial Fellow of New College. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Literature.
Dame Harriet Mary Walter is a British actress. She has performed on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and received an Olivier Award, and nominations for a Tony Award, five Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2011, Walter was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama.
Dame Katharine Mary Barker is a British economist. She is principally noted for her role at the Bank of England and for advising the British government on social issues such as housing and health care.
Dame Kay Elizabeth Davies is a British geneticist. She is Dr Lee's Professor of Anatomy at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford. She is director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) functional genetics unit, a governor of the Wellcome Trust, a director of the Oxford Centre for Gene Function, and a patron and Senior Member of Oxford University Scientific Society. Her research group has an international reputation for work on Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). In the 1980s, she developed a test which allowed for the screening of foetuses whose mothers have a high risk of carrying DMD.
Dame Fiona Claire Reynolds is a British former civil servant and chair of the National Audit Office. She was previously Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge and Director-General of the National Trust. She is the current Chair of the Governing Council at the Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester.
Dame Janet Marion Gaymer, DBE, KC (Hon.) served from January 2006 to December 2010 as a Civil Service Commissioner and Commissioner for Public Appointments, regulating ministerial appointments to designated public bodies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Dame Seona Elizabeth Reid is a Scottish arts administrator who was director of the Glasgow School of Art from 1999 to 2013, and former director of the Scottish Arts Council from 1990 to 1999.
Dame Janet Frances de Botton, is a British art collector and philanthropist.
Dame Elan Closs Stephens is a Welsh academic who has been a non-executive director of the BBC Board since 2017, and Chair of the BBC between 27 June 2023 and 4 March 2024. Specialising in cultural and broadcasting policy, she is also Electoral Commissioner for Wales and Pro-Chancellor of Aberystwyth University. She also chairs the UNESCO International Prize for the Creative Economy panel.
Dame Parveen June Kumar is a British doctor who is Professor of Medicine and Education at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. She worked in the NHS for over 40 years as a consultant gastroenterologist and physician at Barts and the London Hospitals and the Homerton University Hospital. She was the President of the British Medical Association in 2006, of the Royal Society of Medicine from 2010 to 2012, of the Medical Women's Federation from 2016 to 2018 and of the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund from 2013 to 2020. She was also Vice President of the Royal College of Physicians from 2003 to 2005. In addition, she was a founding non-executive director of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence, chaired the Medicines Commission UK until 2005, and also chaired the BUPA Foundation Charity for Research until 2013.
Dame Ila Dianne Thompson, DBE is a British businesswoman. She was Chief Executive Officer of Camelot Group from 2000 to 2014.
The Honours Committee is a committee within the Cabinet Office of the Government of the United Kingdom formed to review nominations for national honours for merit, exceptional achievement or service. Twice yearly the Honours Committee submits formal recommendations for the British monarch's New Years and Birthday Honours. Members of the Honours Committee—which comprises a main committee and nine subcommittees in speciality areas—research and vet nominations for national awards, including knighthoods and the Order of the British Empire.
Dame Vivienne Cox, is a British businesswoman, chairman of the supervisory board of Vallourec, the French multinational steel components company.
Dame Anne Helen Richards is the chief executive officer of the investment management company Fidelity International.
Dame Helen Jean Sutherland Fraser, is a British executive and publisher. From 2010 to 2016, she was the chief executive officer of the Girls' Day School Trust. She previously worked in publishing, and was an editor then managing director at a number of publishers including Heinemann and Penguin UK.
Dame Hilary Mary Cropper, DBE, FRSA, FBCS was a British businesswoman.
Dame Heather Jane McGregor is a British executive, journalist, and academic, known for writing under the moniker "Mrs Moneypenny".