The Alumnae Club

Our August Alumnae Club event took place on Wednesday, 7th August, when we were lucky enough to have an exclusive Private Breakfast View of the Summer Exhibition 2024 at The Royal Academy. The Summer Exhibition has been held every year, without interruption, since 1769, and showcases a diverse array of contemporary works, including prints, paintings, films, photography, sculpture, and architectural works.  This year’s show was coordinated by sculptor Ann Christopher RA.  Unsurprisingly, the event sold out within 24 hours!  Details of our final event of the year will be announced in due course.

On 15th June, we held our annual Summer Event with the Associates of Newnham College, Cambridge.  Titled ‘The Power Of Making Trouble In The Most Constructive Way’, the Keynote Speaker was Her Honour Judge Anuja Dhir, Lady Lavender KC, a British circuit judge and the first non-white judge to be appointed to sit full-time at the Old Bailey.  Joining her on the panel was: Dr Sophy Antrobus, Research Fellow at the Freeman Air and Space Institute; Dr Amy Atkinson, Doctoral researcher in Education, Psycho-Social Linguistics and Modern Foreign Languages. Amy is Regional Director of two charities that work in the arena of trauma-informed sports coaching. She is also Chair of her rugby club, coaching across age groups. And Laura Jackson, founder of Januhairy, an initiative to challenge women to put down their razors for the month and celebrate and normalise body hair.  Chairing the event was Julie Etchingham, ITV News at Ten anchor and a past President of Women of the Year.  It was a brilliant and inspiring afternoon.

In May our speaker was the amazing Preet Chandi MBE, aka Polar Preet, who last year broke the Guinness World Record for the longest solo unsupported one-way polar ski journey.  Preet was in conversation with Financial Times Contributing Editor and Women of the Year Management Committee member, Jane Owen.  Click here and complete your details to see the talk.

We started the 2024 Alumnae Club programme with our 2023 Women of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Baroness Hale of Richmond DBE PC FBA. The youngest person and first woman to serve on the Law Commission, the statutory body which promotes reform of the law, Lady Hale instigated a number of key reforms in family, health and criminal law. In 1994 she became a High Court Judge and in 1999 she was promoted to the Court of Appeal. In 2003 Brenda Hale became the first woman Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in the House of Lords, and was appointed as the first woman Justice of the Supreme Court in 2009. When she retired in 2020 she was President of the Supreme Court; she continues to sit in the House of Lords. Little wonder she was given a spontaneous standing ovation at the Lunch!

Lady Hale was in conversation with Women of the Year Director Diane Kenwood. Diane is a journalist and broadcaster, founder and editor of These are The Heydays and Editorial Director of Noon, the platform for empowering mid-life women.  Click here to see the talk.

Seema Aziz – Pakistani business woman and a social activist; Founder and Chairperson of CARE Foundation, the country’s largest educational non-profit organisation.

Ann Cotton OBE – Founder of CamFed which has educated over 2.6 million children through a network of 5,745 schools in Zimbabwe, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia

Karen Darke MB, British Paralympic cyclist, paratriathlete, adventurer and author

Lyse Doucet CM OBE, BBC Chief International Correspondent

Jo Fairley – Journalist and entrepreneur who founded Green & Black’s Chocolate

Tanya Goodin – Author, speaker, campaigner, digital detox expert and founder of digital wellbeing movement Time To Log Off.

Dame Katherine Grainger DBE, Former rower, Olympic Gold medallist and Chair of UK Sport

Dame Deirdre Hutton, DBE – Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority

Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE, Founder and CEO of Stemettes

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC – Barrister, Broadcaster, and Labour member of the House of Lords; former Women of the Year President

Christina Lamb OBE, Award winning Sunday Times correspondent and author

Dame Maureen Lipman DBE, Theatre, Film, Radio and Television Actress, Writer and Comedian

Thomasina Miers OBE, MasterChef winner, cook, writer and restauranteur

Sister Imelda Poole MBE, President of the Mary Ward Loreto Foundation in Albania who heads a network of European Religious fighting trafficking and exploitation (RENATE).

Dame Gail Rebuck DBE, Chair of Penguin Random Publishing UK and Labour Peer in the House of Lords

Jasvinder Sanghera CBE – Founder of the charity Karma Nirvana which campaigns against forced marriage

Jayne Senior MBE  – The youth worker who blew the whistle on the Rotherham child sex abuse scandal

Lucia van der Post – Luxury Columnist and Editor of Country & Town House Great British Brands and Founding Editor of FT How To Spend It

Kate Woolveridge  – Winner of the Lorraine Inspirational Woman of the Year award for her ‘Forget me not Chorus’ for people suffering from Dementia and their carers.