Helen Alexander (businesswoman)

Dame Helen Anne Alexander (born 10 February 1957) is a British businesswoman. She serves as the Chairman of UBM plc.

Early life

Alexander was educated at St Paul's Girls' School, Hertford College, Oxford and INSEAD.^[1]

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. ^[2] 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. ^[3]

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