Ruth Deech, Baroness Deech

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Ruth Lynn Deech, Baroness Deech, DBE (born 29 April 1943 in Clapham, London) is an academic, bioethicist and former Governor of the BBC (2002-2006).

Deech studied Law at St Anne's College, Oxford, graduating with a first in 1965. She returned to the college in 1970 to be a tutorial fellow in Law, a job she retained until 1991 when she was elected Principal of the college. She retired in 2004, and was succeeded as principal by Tim Gardam. The college has since named its latest building after her; the Ruth Deech Building (see [1]), the fourth to be named for a principal.

She has held many other positions during her life; among others, she served as Senior Proctor of the University of Oxford between 1985 and 1986, chair of the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority from 1994 until 2002, and was appointed to a four year term as a Governor [2] of the BBC in 2002, the same year that she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). In 1999, The Observer newspaper named her as the 107th most powerful person in Britain.

After leaving St. Anne's, Deech was appointed the first Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (see Guardian article [3]), dealing with the resolution of student complaints at all UK universities.

On July 22, 2005 it was announced that she would be created a life peer (see [4]), and the title was gazetted as Baroness Deech, of Cumnor in the County of Oxfordshire, on 5 October 2005. Lady Deech made her maiden speech on 24 November 2005 (see [5]).

Lady Deech is a member of the Jewish Leadership Council.

Lady Deech is married to a solicitor and has one daughter, a journalist for BBC News. Her interests include travel, opera, theatre, entertaining, public speaking and sudoku.