Helen Alexander (businesswoman)

Dame Helen Anne Alexander (born 10 February 1957) is a British businesswoman. She serves as the Chairman of UBM plc. She has an MA from Oxford, an MBA from INSEAD and in 2016 was awarded the Legion d'Honneur.^[1]

Early life

Alexander was educated at St Paul's Girls' School, Hertford College, Oxford and INSEAD.^[2]

Career

She began a career in publishing at Faber and Faber. From 1997-2008 she was Chief Executive of the Economist Group: in 2004 she received a CBE for services to publishing. Alexander's numerous directorships have included Huawei Technologies, esure Group Holdings, Rolls-Royce Group, Incisive Media, Thomson-Reuters, UBM plc and Bain Capital. ^[3] In 2011, she was President of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and was awarded a DBE for services to business.

She is a Trustee of Sir Tim Berners-Lee's World Wide Web Foundation, and was Chairman of the Port of London Authority from January 2010 until 31 December 2015. Since September 2011 she has been Chancellor of the University of Southampton, the first woman in that role. ^[4] Her appointment at Southampton attracted some criticism from the student body over Alexander's role at Rolls-Royce, given the company's role in the arms trade.^[5]

She is also an honorary fellow of Hertford College, Oxford ^[6] and sits on the board of Said Business School, University of Oxford.^[7]

References