Chair
The Scouts
Ann is the first LGBT+ woman in the 112 year history of the UK Scout Movement to be appointed Chair of the Scouts – the largest mixed youth charity in the UK helping young people gain skills for life. Under her leadership as Chair, the movement has instigated structural changes resulting in the appointment of Scouting’s first Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager and a new UK Commissioner for Inclusion, as well as raising awareness for LGBT+ inclusion. Scouts now participate in Pride events across the UK, make Pride merchandise and materials available to Scouts and promote engagement with LGBT+ issues in the media. This year, Scouts ran the family area at Pride London, putting the LGBT+ community, diversity and inclusion at the heart of the movement’s skills for life programme. Ann is also the first, and to date only, LGBT+ woman to have served as Chair of one of the 38 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) across England. She was Chair of the UK government’s LEP Review implementation group and co-chaired the Prime Minister’s LEP Council. In this role, Ann also chaired the first ever national LEP network event on diversity and inclusion, an initiative to engage more women and LGBT+ people on LEP Boards.