Kate Harriet Alexandra Rock, Baroness Rock, DL (born 9 October 1968), is a British Conservative politician and member of the House of Lords. Formerly Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party with special responsibility for business engagement, she was nominated for a life peerage in August 2015. [1]
Rock was educated at Hanford School, Sherborne School for Girls and Oxford Polytechnic, [2] where she took a BA degree in Publishing and History. [3]
Between August 2014 and November 2017, Rock served as non-executive director and as chairman of the Remuneration Committee of Imagination Technologies plc (a FTSE 250 high technology company, which was sold to Canyon Bridge Partners). [4]
She also served as a non-executive director of First News (UK) Ltd, a national newspaper for young children, between 2014 and February 2017. [5]
On 1 September 2018 she joined the Board of Keller Group plc (the world's largest provider of geotechnical solutions) and is now the senior independent director, serving on the Audit, Nomination, Remuneration and Health, Safety, Environment and Quality Committees. [6]
In October 2022, it was announced that Rock was appointed Chair of the UK infrastructure company Costain Group. [7]
Between 2015 and 2016 Rock served as Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party with special responsibility for business engagement. [8]
She was created Baroness Rock, of Stratton in the County of Dorset on 15 October 2015. [9]
In 2016/2017 she was a Visiting Parliamentary Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford. [10]
Between 2017 and 2018 she was a member of the House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence [11] and since 2019 she has sat on the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology. [12] She has also served since May 2018 as a member of the House of Lords Select Committee on the Rural Economy. [13]
In November 2018 she was appointed as a founding board member of the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, an advisory body set up by the UK Government to seek to maximise the benefits of data-enabled technologies, including artificial intelligence. [14]
She is a founding Ambassador of “Women Supporting Women”, a group at The Prince's Trust committed to changing the lives of young women, [15] and was a member of The Prince's Trust's Philanthropy Advisory Board. [16]
In March 2021 Rock was appointed as a Director and Trustee of The Royal Countryside Fund, which was founded by HM King Charles III.
In February 2022 Rock was appointed as Chair of The Tenancy Working Group, commissioned by the Secretary of State for DEFRA to look at the future of agricultural tenancies. The Rock Review, with recommendations to Government, was published in October 2022.
Rock was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Dorset in November 2023. [17]
Her husband Caspar Rock is Chief Investment Officer at Cazenove Capital Management, the wealth management arm of Schroders in the UK, Channel Islands and Asia. [18]
Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos, is a British Labour Party politician and diplomat who served as the eighth UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Before her appointment to the UN, she served as British High Commissioner to Australia. She was created a life peer in 1997, serving as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council from 2003 to 2007.
Martha Lane Fox, Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho, is a British businesswoman, philanthropist and public servant. She co-founded Last Minute during the dotcom boom of the early 2000s and has subsequently served on public service digital projects. She sits on the boards of WeTransfer and Chanel, as well as being a trustee of The Queen's Commonwealth Trust. She previously served on the board of Channel 4.
Catharine Letitia Hoey, Baroness Hoey, better known as Kate Hoey, is a Northern Irish politician and life peer who served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Home Affairs from 1998 to 1999 and Minister for Sport from 1999 to 2001. During the 1970s Hoey was involved in radical far-left groups but by the end of the decade became involved with the Labour Party. Hoey remained a member of the Labour Party for several decades while she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Vauxhall from 1989 to 2019, but resigned from the party in 2020.
Judith Ann Wilcox, Baroness Wilcox is a businesswoman and a life peer. She was awarded her peerage in 1996 as one of the first Working Peers for her services to Consumer Services. She sat in the House of Lords as a Conservative until her retirement in 2020.
Joan Christabel Jill Knight, Baroness Knight of Collingtree, was a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, she served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Edgbaston from 1966 to 1997. She was created a life peer as "Baroness Knight of Collingtree, of Collingtree in the County of Northamptonshire" in 1997 after she had stood down at that year's general election, and retired from the House of Lords on 24 March 2016.
Mary Teresa Goudie, Baroness Goudie is a British politician and life peer, currently sitting for the Labour Party. In 1998, she was made a life peer as Baroness Goudie, of Roundwood in the London Borough of Brent. She is on the board of Vital Voices and is involved in promoting gender equity with both the G8 and G20.
Peta Jane Buscombe, Baroness Buscombe is an English barrister, regulator and politician. She is a Conservative member of the House of Lords. Lady Buscombe was Chief Executive of the Advertising Association from 2007 to 2009. She served as Chairman of the Press Complaints Commission from April 2009 until 16 October 2011.
Kathleen Margaret Richardson, Baroness Richardson of Calow, is a British Methodist minister. Created a life peer in 1998, she served as a crossbench member of the House of Lords until 2018.
Usha Kumari Prashar, Baroness Prashar, is a British politician and a crossbench member of the House of Lords. Since the 1970s, she has served as a director or chair of a variety of public and private sector organisations. She became the first chair of the Judicial Appointments Commission upon its creation in April 2006.
Sally Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Huyton, is a British Labour Party politician, and Master of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. She is the former Chair of Ofsted.
Pauline Perry, Baroness Perry of Southwark is an educator, educationist, academic, and activist. She is a Conservative politician and was for 25 years a working member of the British House of Lords. In 1981 she became Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England. In 1986 she became Vice-Chancellor of South Bank Polytechnic, and serving during its transition to a university, became the first woman in history to run a British university.
Beeban Tania Kidron, Baroness Kidron, is an advocate for children's rights in the digital world. She has played a determinative role in establishing standards for online safety and privacy across the world.
Delyth Jane Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Drefelin is a Crossbench peer in the House of Lords of the United Kingdom, having formerly sat as a Labour peer. She was raised to the peerage in 2004 and appointed Chief Executive of the Breast Cancer Campaign, now Breast Cancer Now, in 2011. She was educated at Bedford College, London, BSc Physiology & Biochemistry, 1983, now part of Royal Holloway, University of London, and also University College London. She was president of the London University Union (1985–86).
Margaret Theresa Prosser, Baroness Prosser, is a Labour life peer and former trade unionist.
Muriel Winifred Turner, Baroness Turner of Camden was a British Labour politician and trade union leader.
Nicola Claire Blackwood, Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford is a British politician of the Conservative Party. Baroness Blackwood was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Oxford West and Abingdon from 2010 to 2017. She has also been known by her married name Nicola Blackwood-Bate since 2016.
Claire Tyler, Baroness Tyler of Enfield, is a Liberal Democrat life peer in the House of Lords.
Ruby McGregor-Smith, Baroness McGregor-Smith, is a British business executive and politician. McGregor-Smith was the former CEO of Mitie Group PLC, a UK facilities management business, from 2007 to 2016. She was nominated as a Conservative life peer in August 2015.
Lucy Jeanne Neville-Rolfe, Baroness Neville-Rolfe is a British businesswoman and politician serving as Minister of State at the Cabinet Office since September 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she has served in ministerial positions under prime ministers David Cameron, Theresa May, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak. In December 2021, she was appointed by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to lead the statutory review into the state pension age.
Charlotte Sarah Emily Vere, Baroness Vere of Norbiton is a British Conservative politician and member of the House of Lords. She also serves as a Parliamentary Secretary in HM Treasury and was executive director of the Girls' Schools Association from 2013 to 2016.
