Lynda Chalker

Lynda Chalker, Baroness Chalker of Wallasey, PC (née Bates; born 29 April 1942) is a British Conservative politician who was Member of Parliament for Wallasey from 1974 to 1992. She served as Minister of State for Overseas Development and Africa at the Foreign Office, in the Conservative government from 1989 to 1997.

Chalker headed the British delegation which participated in the first Tokyo International Conference on African Development in October 1993.^[1]

She was educated at Roedean (where she was head girl), Heidelberg University, Queen Mary University of London and the University of Westminster (then known as the Polytechnic of Central London), and worked as a statistician and market researcher, including spells with Shell-Mex and BP and Opinion Research Centre (ORC), before entering Parliament as MP for Wallasey, Merseyside, succeeding the former Cabinet minister Ernest Marples. She held a number of government posts, including spells as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Security from 1979–82 and at the Department of Transport from 1982–83. In 1983 she became Minister of State at Transport, being appointed Minister for Europe in 1986.

Chalker was granted a life peerage as Baroness Chalker of Wallasey, of Leigh-on-Sea in the County of Essex in 1992,^[2] after losing her seat at the General Election of that year.

She jointly holds the 20th century record for continuous government service, along with Kenneth Clarke, Malcolm Rifkind, Tony Newton and Patrick Mayhew, as she held office for the entire duration of the Conservatives' eighteen years in power.

Post Parliament

Chalker is the Founder and President of Africa Matters Limited, an independent consultancy providing advice and assistance to companies initiating,developing or growing their activities in Africa.^[3] She is a member of the international advisory board of Lafarge and sits on the Board of Trustees of the Investment Climate Facility for Africa.

She is a Consultant for Uganda's Presidential Investors Roundtable (PIRT) that advises the President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, on ways to improve Uganda's investment climate and competitiveness.^[4]

Chalker is a Member of the Global Leadership Foundation, an organisation which works to support democratic leadership, prevent and resolve conflict through mediation and promote good governance in the form of democratic institutions, open markets, human rights and the rule of law. It does so by making available, discreetly and in confidence, the experience of former leaders to today’s national leaders. It is a not-for-profit organisation composed of former heads of government, senior governmental and international organisation officials who work closely with Heads of Government on governance-related issues of concern to them.^[4]

Chalker is a Member of the Board of Trustees of Sentebale, a Charity set-up to reach Lesotho's neediest children, many of whom are the victims of extreme poverty and the HIV/AIDS epidemic of that area. Chalker founded the Chalker Foundation, which seeks to support the improvement of healthcare in Africa.

In June 1974, Chalker was awarded an Honorary Citizenship from President Guebuza for services to Mozambique.

She held the position of Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Corporate Responsibility and Reputation Committee for Unilever retiring in May 2007 having served three terms of three years. She joined the Board of Unilever as an Advisory Director in 1998 becoming a Non-Executive Director in 2004. She also served on Africa Advisory Board of Renaissance Capital.

Chalker is a former Chairman of the Medicines for Malaria Venture, a not-for-profit foundation dedicated to reducing the burden of malaria in disease endemic countries. She is a former Non-Executive Director of Group Five (Pty). She was awarded the Livingstone Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in 2000.^[5]

Chalker was shortlisted for the Grassroot Diplomat Initiative Award in 2015 for her work with Africa Matters, and she remains in the directory of the Grassroot Diplomat Who's Who publication.^[6]

References

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Lynda Chalker
• Lynda Chalker biodata, qub.ac.uk; accessed 10 August 2014.