2008 First Woman of Public Service
Julia Cleverdon
Cleverdon joined Business in the Community as chief executive in 1992. Back then, the charity employed 115 people with an annual turnover of £4.7m. Today, the organisation has grown to 343 staff with an annual turnover of £23.3m and represents 800 companies across the UK committed to continually improving their positive impact on society. Amongst these are 380 of the UK`s most influential companies.
She pioneered the revolutionary "Seeing is Believing" programme in 1990 - taking pinstripes (nearly always white and male) - into disadvantaged communities, failing schools and run-down housing estates to show them the deprivation just outside their smart offices. She gave business leaders real tangible ways of helping their local communities and to date, over 6,000 business leaders have participated in the programme.
Education is another cause that drives Cleverdon and keeps her pounding the corridors of Westminster and Canary Wharf. In 2007, she was invited to join the National Council for Educational Excellence to lead a review for the Prime Minister on how education-business partnerships can contribute to educational excellence.
She has been listed by The Times as one of the 50 most influential women in Britain, and appointed a CBE in 1996 and a CBO in the New Year`s Honours` list 2002.
Shortlist
Joan Stringer CBE, principal and vice chancellor, Napier University
Asha Khemka, principal & chief executive, West Nottinghamshire College
Su Sayer, chief executive, United Response
Sharon Bamford, UK India Business Council
