Vivien Duffield

Dame Vivien Louise Duffield, DBE (born 26 March 1946[1]), is an English philanthropist.

Life and career

The daughter of millionaire businessman and philanthropist Sir Charles Clore and his wife, Francine (née Halphen),[2][3] Duffield was educated at the Lycée Français, Heathfield School and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University where she read modern languages.[4] She has a brother, Alan Evelyn Clore. Her marriage to British financier John Duffield produced two children, Arabella and George.[5] The marriage ended in divorce in 1976.[2] Fromj 1973 until 2005, she was in a relationship with Sir Jocelyn Stevens, who was Managing Director of Express Newspapers and Chairman of English Heritage.)[1]

After her father's death in 1979, Dame Vivien Duffield assumed the Chairmanship of the Clore Foundations in the UK and in Israel. In the UK she also established her own Vivien Duffield Foundation in 1987, and the two foundations merged in 2000 to become the Clore Duffield Foundation.

Dame Vivien’s UK Foundation has supported a wide range of organisations including the Royal Opera House, Tate, the Royal Ballet, the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, Dulwich Picture Gallery, the Southbank Centre and Eureka! The National Children’s Museum. The Foundation has made a particular contribution to cultural education, having funded dozens of Clore Learning Centres across the UK, and to leadership training, having launched the Clore Leadership Programme for the cultural sector in 2003 and the Clore Social Leadership Programme in 2008.[6]

In addition to the Chairmanship of her Foundation, Dame Vivien was a member of the Board of the Royal Opera House from 1990 to 2001 and is currently Chairman of the Royal Opera House Endowment Fund. She is a Director of the Southbank Centre board and a Governor of the Royal Ballet. From 2007 to 2010 she was Chair of the Campaign for Oxford University. She is the founder of JW3, London’s new Jewish Community Centre, which opened on the Finchley Road in October 2013.[7] She is also Chairman of the Clore Foundation in Israel.

A 2005 London Evening Standard article estimated that she and the Foundations she controls had donated in excess of £176 million. In March 2011, amid heavy Government cuts on the arts, she donated £8.2 million for educational purposes to 11 leading arts institutions.[1] Following her departure from the board of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Duffield subsequently donated £1M to the re-development of the London Coliseum.[8]

Honours

Dame Vivien’s charitable work has been formally acknowledged by many institutions, both in the UK and in Israel. She was awarded the CBE in 1989, the DBE in 2000 and in 2008 HRH The Prince of Wales presented Dame Vivien with one of the first Medals for Arts Philanthropy. The Medal celebrates individuals who support the arts and recognises the contribution of the most inspiring philanthropists in the UK. In 2006 Dame Vivien won the Beacon Fellowship Prize .

In February 2013 she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Andrew Anthony (2011-03-26). "Vivien Duffield: The woman who thinks it's better to give". The Observer. Retrieved 2015-07-04.
  2. 1 2 Tim Adams (2000-05-28). "No sweet Charity". The Observer. Retrieved 2015-07-04.
  3. ↑ Dalya Alberge (1993-02-02). "Dear Vivien, Yours Desperately: Vivien Clore Duffield takes out her index cards. 'You name a letter', she suggests. 'Take C . . .,' she continues without stopping, 'Chelsea Physic Garden, Children's Legal Centre, Contemporary Dance Trust . . .' Flicking through the cards at random, she mentions the Ashmolean, the National Gallery and the V & A". The Independent. Retrieved 2015-07-04.
  4. ↑ "LMH, Oxford - Prominent Alumni". Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  5. ↑ Elizabeth Grice (2008-05-29). "Dame Vivien Duffield: 'You're lucky if you have one good relationship'". Telegraph. Retrieved 2015-07-04.
  6. ↑ Simon Tait (2004-06-29). "Vivien Duffield: Funding is child's play". The Independent. Retrieved 2015-07-04.
  7. ↑ Charlotte Edwardes (2013-07-10). "Meet Dame Vivien Duffield, London's super-philanthropist - and step-granny to that 'wild beauty' Cara Delevingne". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 2015-07-04.
  8. ↑ Dan Glaister (2011-11-15). "Lady bountiful". The Guardian. Retrieved 2015-07-04.

External links

Newspaper articles and interviews

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