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The Queen's Birthday Honours 2022: High Awards

Published 1 June 2022

Companion Of Honour (CH)

Sir Quentin Saxby Blake CBE

Sir Quentin Blake is one of the most popular and enduring illustrators in the world, who has enjoyed a 70 year long career. A national institution and the doyen of his profession, he has illustrated over 300 books, which have sold millions of copies and entranced three generations of readers. His books have won numerous prizes and awards, including the Whitbread Award, the Kate Greenaway Medal, the Emil/Kurt Maschler Award and the international Bologna Ragazzi Prize. Over the past two decades he has also produced many works for specific sites in hospitals and other public spaces. He also creates works for exhibitions, such as We Live in Worrying Times at Hastings Contemporary. He is also involved in the refurbishment of a 19th century building in Islington which, on completion will be probably the largest space in the world devoted to the display and study of illustration.

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie has authored 14 novels, including The Satanic Verses; Midnight’s Children (awarded the Booker Prize in 1981); Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights; The Golden House; and Quichotte (published in 2019). Born in Bombay, he later attended Rugby School and King’s College, Cambridge, where he read History. Beginning his career in advertising, Midnight’s Children was twice (1993 and 2008) voted Best of the Bookers by the public. He was knighted for services to literature in 2007. He is also a storied author of non-fiction, an essayist, co-editor and a noted humanist.

Dame Marina Sarah Warner CBE FBA

Dame Marina Warner is a novelist, cultural historian, art critic, curator, librettist, broadcaster, essayist and critic. She has been a Professor at Birkbeck College since 2014 and is a Distinguished Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. She was given the Holberg Prize and a DBE for services to education and literary scholarship in 2015; and the Presidency of the Royal Society of Literature, and a British Academy “Lifetime Achievement” award in 2017. She is profoundly involved in the cultural and educational life of the country. Her intellectual interests range across Europe and beyond, including her work on French and Italian literature; on mythology; and folklore of Eastern European cultures. She is invited to speak all over the world, she is a widely-read cultural commentator and a highly respected academic and teacher, and she has been a pioneer for women’s roles, as one of the few women Reith Lecturers and the first woman President of the RSL.

Dame Grand Cross Of The Order Of The British Empire (GBE)

Dame Susan Elizabeth Ion OBE

Dame Susan Ion is a global expert in nuclear engineering who has made extensive contributions to the public, private and third sectors, serving as an outstanding role model and advocate for STEM careers and shaping long-term energy strategy on domestic and global stages. She spent nearly 30 years at British Nuclear Fuels Limited, serving as Group Director of Technology and Operations from 1996-2006. Subsequently she has taken on an extraordinary range of senior roles supporting key government decisions and advising on strategic policies. She has made extensive and influential voluntary contributions to professional bodies, including as Vice-President and Chair of the Policy Committee at the Royal Academy of Engineering, first female member and Chair of the prestigious MacRobert Award Judges, and member of the Council for the Royal Society.

Dame Commander Of The Order Of The Bath (DCB)

Bernadette Kelly CB

Bernadette Kelly started her career at the Department for Trade and Industry in 1986. After serving in HM Treasury, No 10 and the Department for Communities and Local Government, she returned to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in 2020 as Director General. There, she led the establishment of the Competition and Markets Authority and on boardroom diversity and industrial strategy. In 2015 she moved to the Department for Transport (DfT) to lead the Department’s work on rail, including Crossrail and rail franchising. In 2017 she became Permanent Secretary at DfT, where she has been responsible for some of the most complex and politically high-profile infrastructure projects in the UK, including HS2, and has led work to strengthen project delivery across Government. She also played a leading role on Brexit planning and keeping transport running through COVID. She is a member of the Civil Service Board and Senior Leadership Committee and, as a Social Mobility Champion, has spearheaded work to improve socio-economic diversity across the Civil Service.

Knight Commander Of The Order Of The Bath (KCB)

Charles Ferguson Roxburgh

Charles Roxburgh started his career at the accountancy firm Arthur Andersen & Co in their Management Consulting Division. On graduating from Harvard Business School in 1986, he joined McKinsey & Company, where he became a Senior Partner and Co-Head of the McKinsey Global Institute, an in-house economics research unit. In 2013, he brought his experience and expertise to HM Treasury as Director General Financial Services. In 2016, he became Second Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury, where he made significant progress on completing the Government’s exit from its ownership of financial assets. He also supported HMT’s programme of work on Brexit, focusing on providing senior support on the financial services agenda and overseeing HMT’s work on the supply-side economic response to different Brexit scenarios. During the Covid pandemic, he led several of HMT’s important interventions to support businesses. He has also overseen the creation of the new UK Infrastructure Bank.

Dame Commander Of The Order Of The British Empire (DBE)

Dr Ruth Rosemarie Beverley (Ruth May)

As regional chief nurse, Ruth May championed the ‘Stop the Pressure’ campaign and subsequent national programme; the first phase in the Midlands and East region led to a 49% reduction in grade 2-4 pressure ulcers across 88 trusts, positively affecting patient wellbeing and delivering cost savings. She set up the nursing directorate of NHS Improvement and then led the alignment of NHS England and NHS Improvement nursing teams, resulting in a single highly functioning senior management team with shared values and objectives. She has a successful track record of supporting senior nurses into roles where their skills and expertise are utilised effectively. Her leadership response to the Covid-19 pandemic was exceptional. She brokered agreement across the four nations, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and trade unions to ensure agreement and consistent messaging.

The Rt Hon Arlene Foster

In 2004 Arlene Foster joined the Democratic Unionist Party (having previously been a member of the Ulster Unionist Party) and also served as a local Councillor from 2005-10. She was elected leader of the DUP and First Minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2016, when Peter Robinson stepped down as Party leader. During the protracted negotiations to restore the devolved institutions in Northern Ireland, which had collapsed in early 2017, she actively made the case for the position of Unionism. The resumption of the devolved institutions in Northern Ireland in early January 2020, following the New Decade New Approach agreement, allowed her to return to the role of First Minister. She stepped down as First Minister (and leader of the DUP) in June 2021. As one of political Unionism’s first female leaders, she has reset the boundaries for political representation.

Christine Gilbert CBE

As Director of Education for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Christine Gilbert led the dramatic turnaround in performance and quality of local schools. She then became Chief Executive there, leading a transformation of the Council’s structure and services to the community. From 2011-16 she held the post of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector at Ofsted, where she brought together three different inspectorates to create a new organisation. Since 2016, she has been the Chair of Future First, a charity that champions the establishment of a thriving alumni in every school, so that young people can benefit from motivational role models. She is an advocate of area-based education partnerships and has supported the development of many. Currently, she is Visiting Professor at UCL Institute of Education and Chair of Camden Learning, a school-led locality partnership that drives excellence and equity.

Professor Clare Philomena Grey FRS

Her scientific breakthroughs underpin 25 years of global progress in rechargeable electric batteries, which have led to mobile phones, laptops and electric vehicles. Clare Grey is a major figure in the UK science landscape whose work on lithium-ion batteries will affect the development of sustainable transport and energy systems. She was a member of the Royal Society’s Future Leaders, African Independent Research fellowships program, and continues to work, especially in Nigeria, as a mentor and enables research visits to her group in Cambridge. Her work has been internationally recognised most recently by the award of the Körber European Science Prize 2021 for her ground-breaking research on the optimisation of batteries using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. She sits on the Royal Society Net Zero panel. She is a co-founder of a company that focuses on fast charging batteries.

Nia Griffith MP

Nia Griffith has worked tirelessly to champion the interests of her local community over several decades, first as a local councillor and more recently as the Member of Parliament for Llanelli. She is widely respected both amongst her colleagues in Wales and on all sides of the House. First elected in 2005, Nia held a number of junior roles within the last Labour government. She was Shadow Secretary of State for Wales in 2015-16 and again in 2020-21, having been Shadow Secretary of State for Defence in 2016-20. Outside of her frontbench commitments, she has always worked to promote issues of human rights, particularly for women and the LGBT community. She is also recognised within the constituency of Llanelli as an effective campaigner, fighting to retain services at her local Prince Philip Hospital, and working assiduously to represent the interests of the steel industry, a major employer in her town.

Fionnuala Mary Jay-O’boyle CBE

As HM Lord-Lieutenant of Belfast, Fionnuala Jay-O’Boyle’s commitment and service has been outstanding and unique to all sections of the community. She has led Lieutenancy visits across the city, covering areas that many may shy away from, visiting charities responsible for homeless people and for victims of the Troubles. She has visited every area of the city; met with and supported all minority groups; attended cross community activities; engaged with the police and armed forces; health and care services; the business community; the culture and sports sectors; all levels of education; and public and voluntary representatives. During the Covid-19 pandemic she personally made 1,100 telephone calls and wrote 680 letters/e-mails of encouragement and support to those on the front line. All of this was in addition to her normal representative role as a Lord-Lieutenant. She is hugely respected by all sections of society.

Karen Elisabeth Dind Jones CBE

Karen Jones is one of the leading figures in the hospitality industry and one of the most prominent women in UK business and, over the last 18 months, has had extensive involvement helping the Government to understand and support the hospitality industry during the Covid-19 pandemic. Having helped set up and float Theme Restaurants Ltd in her early 20s, she went on to launch Café Rouge. In 2002 she became CEO of Spirit Group Ltd. She is now Executive Chairman of Prezzo and Chairman of Hawksmoor & Mowgli, and has been an active investor in various hospitality concepts in London. She is a Commissioner of the Crown Estate and also sits on the board of Firmenich AG in Geneva, and Deliveroo PLC in London. She was appointed Chancellor of the University of East Anglia (UEA) in October 2016 and has chaired the Board of National Theatre Enterprises Ltd since 2007.

Dr Ann Geraldine Limb CBE

Ann Limb is Chair of the UK Innovation Corridor, the country’s leading SciTech region stretching from London to Cambridge, and Chair of City & Guilds. As the first female and openly gay Chair of The Scouts from 2015-21, she provided outstanding leadership of the country’s largest youth movement comprising 460,000 young people and 160,00 adult volunteers in 8000 separate charities. During her tenure as Chair, she played a fundamental role in encouraging young people aged 4-25 from all backgrounds to join Scouts to gain key life skills, speak up, step up, and find their place in the world. Under her stewardship, youth membership and adult volunteers grew every year until the pandemic, and 1,280 Scout units opened in areas of deprivation. A lifelong champion of diversity and inclusivity in all she does, she has also made significant personal donations to the arts, music, and culture.

Professor Sally Mapstone FRSE

Sally Mapstone is the greatest living expert on Older Scots, recognised through her appointment as the first female President of the Saltire Society in 2018. As Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education at Oxford from 2011-16 and Deputy-Chair of Council, she led the creation of Oxford’s Strategic Plan for 2013-18. Later appointed as Principal of St Andrew’s, she led the creation of the University Strategy for 2018-23, which resulted in its attainment of first place in The Times Good University Guide for 2022. She leads on widening access work at Universities Scotland; her successes include the development of an access guarantee for care-experienced applicants. Outwith the UK, she chaired the International Advisory Board for the University of Helsinki and is a trustee of the Europaeum.

The Rt Hon Maria Miller MP

Maria Miller has been the MP for Basingstoke since 2005 and served on the Conservative Party frontbench, in both opposition and in Government, from soon after being elected until 2014. She then chaired the Women and Equalities Select Committee from its formation in June 2015 until November 2019. She was appointed Minister for Disabled People in the Coalition Government in May 2010 and was later promoted to Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and Minister for Women and Equalities, serving from 2012-14. She was instrumental in introducing legislation for same-sex marriage in England and Wales, and successfully piloted this historic bill through the House of Commons; one of the most notable achievements of the Coalition Government. Since leaving the front bench in 2014, she has continued to lead work (both within Parliament and outside) on equalities, disability and culture.

Professor Fiona Margaret Powrie

Fiona Powrie has made major contributions to our understanding of the immune system. Her early work provided very important support for the existence of regulatory T lymphocytes, adding very strong data so that it is now universally accepted. Turning her attention to the gut, she has been a leader in working out how the bacterial content interacts with the immune system. Her scientific contribution is unique and has been transformational to our understanding of how the gut bacteria and the immune system interact. She has taken this basic research in a translational direction and with her clinical colleagues is actively applying her discoveries to the management of inflammatory bowel disease. Her work has implications for bowel cancer. She has emerged as a very strong scientific leader and inspirational role model for the many young women beginning careers in biomedical science. She was appointed a Governor of the Wellcome Trust in 2018, becoming Deputy Chair in 2022.

Professor Louise Richardson

Louise Richardson was the first woman Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. She launched Oxford’s new access initiative to ensure that at least 25% of British undergraduates admitted in 2023 come from non-traditional or deprived backgrounds, of those British undergraduates admitted in 2020, 23.6% identified as Black and minority ethnic (rising from 15.8% in 2016) and 16% were from socio-economically disadvantaged areas (rising from 8.2% in 2016). She was instrumental in securing the agreement with AstraZeneca to produce and market their Covid-19 vaccine. Her involvement in the negotiations enabled the timely roll-out of the UK’s vaccine programme. As the first woman Principal and Vice-Chancellor of St Andrews University, she led it to its highest global and national rankings and significantly increased its recruitment of students from non-traditional backgrounds.

Lady (Susan Carroll) Sainsbury Of Turville CBE

Susan Sainsbury’s long-term generosity as a philanthropist and her role as a key influencer in the success of a wide range of enterprises has made a real difference to people’s lives. In 2010, she was awarded a CBE for services to the arts. Her personal foundation, The Backstage Trust, is a major force in the world of independent theatre, tackling the unglamorous challenge of supporting brilliant young creative individuals. When Covid-19 emerged, she grasped the challenges of the pandemic and significantly increased support from The Backstage Trust to provide emergency aid. These grants are widespread, but examples include an emergency grant to Manchester Royal Exchange enabling them to retain their education team and meet other core costs.

Knights Bachelor

Professor Michael James Paul Arthur

Throughout his distinguished career in higher education, Michael Arthur has been a committed advocate of access to university for the disadvantaged and of driving equality and diversity. He began his career at the University of Southampton where he progressed quickly to become a senior lecturer in 1989 and professor of medicine in 1992, at the age of 37. He was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds in 2004, becoming the first Russell Group VC to have attended a comprehensive school. As President and Provost of University College London from 2013-21 he oversaw the University’s rise to eighth in the QS World University Rankings in 2020, secured UCL’s position as the most successful institute in collaborative research in Europe and put the University on a strong and sustainable financial footing.

Nigel Boardman

Over a 45-year career with Slaughter and May, Nigel Boardman has achieved a deeply positive impact on a range of issues including compliance, corporate governance, demergers, investigations and insolvency. One of the finest corporate lawyers in the UK, he can be credited for ensuring the retail industry retained prominent British hallmarks when he successfully defended Marks and Spencer from takeover and advised HM Government on the recapitalisation of the banking system during the global financial crisis. Throughout his three-year tenure with BEIS as a Non-Executive Board Member and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee, he provided a wealth of expertise while BEIS went through some hugely challenging times. He has always made incisive and constructive contributions to Board discussions and decisions and provided expert advice on a range of complex policy and delivery issues ranging from the Post Office to nuclear liabilities.

Professor Peter George Bruce FRS FRSE

Batteries are fundamental to the portable electronic products we now take for granted and advances in battery technology hold the key to electric vehicles, a cornerstone of a net zero world. Peter Bruce’s vision that batteries and energy storage would become important for society and his decades of work on lithium batteries has given the UK a global leadership position. He has carried out pioneering fundamental research into lithium batteries and their materials, work that has led to patents and their commercialisation. He has also nurtured new generations of experts in batteries across academia and industry. He is a materials chemist, focusing on energy materials. He has published 378 papers, has an H-index of 118, is highly cited and has been in the top 1% of researchers worldwide since 2015, one of only a small number of physical scientists in the UK to be so.

Nicholas Coleridge CBE

Nicholas Coleridge has provided outstanding voluntary public service and holds a highly distinguished career in publishing. As Chairman of the Victoria and Albert Museum since 2015, and a trustee since 2012, Nicholas has presided over a remarkable period of resurgence for the museum. Under his stewardship, the V&A has acquired a new vibrancy, ambition and clarity of purpose, propelling it to record visitor numbers. As founding Chairman of Fashion Rocks he raised £3m for The Prince’s Trust. He has chaired the British Fashion Council, Professional Publishers Association, and the Campaign for Wool. Outside of public life, Nicholas is a 45 year veteran of the publishing industry.

Bradley Fried

Bradley Fried has a long history of public service, including serving on the HM Treasury Audit Committee (2009-12), the Financial Conduct Authority Board (2016-18) and the Court of the Bank of England (since 2012). On the Court of the Bank, he served as Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee (2014-18) and as Chair of Court, since 2018. He has played a vital role in supporting the Bank through the Covid-19 pandemic, helping it play its part in the national economic response. He provided exceptional support to the Governor, who took office in March 2020. His close working relationship with the Treasury Permanent Secretary and the Chancellor, has ensured the strength of the Bank-Treasury axis during this critical time. He has also pioneered a major overhaul of the Bank’s approach on diversity and inclusion, culminating in a landmark Court report on ethnicity in the Bank.

Professor Andrew Francis Goddard

The first President of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) from the East Midlands, Andrew Goddard has been a powerful advocate for workforce development, diversity and inclusion and reduction in health inequalities. Much of his RCP activity has been unpaid, including all his charity associated roles. As well as being one of the UK’s leading gastroenterologists, he has had a long career in workforce development. His lasting contributions include the annual workforce census of physicians, creation of the Faculty of Physician Associates and practical support for the wellbeing of trainees and other doctors. The latter has been recognised by an honorary fellowship of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine. As RCP Registrar he oversaw modernisation of the governance of the organisation, the creation of a new charter for members and a re-writing of the centuries-old bye-laws.

Julian Hartley

Julian Hartley has driven major improvements to healthcare, particularly in Leeds. Under his leadership the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) has moved from a position of major financial and performance challenges in 2013 to a £50m surplus by 2018/19, placing LTHT as one of the top performing NHS organisations in the country. He is acknowledged as an influential and respected leader across the NHS and was appointed Managing Director for NHS Improving Quality in 2012 to consolidate NHS improvement activities across the entire NHS. He led the development of the interim NHS People Plan, published 2019, based on engaging staff and changing the leadership culture for tackling nursing shortages, delivering the Long-Term Plan and devolution to local Integrated Care Systems.

Stephen Andrew Gill Hough CBE

The first classical pianist to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, his mastery of the instrument as well as an individual and inquisitive mind has earned Stephen Hough a multitude of prestigious awards and a longstanding international following. From highly acclaimed performances with the world’s greatest orchestras to an interest in contemporary and neglected 19th century works, his musical achievements have resulted in many awards and accolades and a discography of more than 60 recordings. As a composer, he has written for orchestra, choir, chamber ensemble and solo piano. Recent commissions include composing the commissioned work for the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and his String Quartet No. 1 Les Six Recontres composed for the Takacs Quartet. As an author, his book of essays, ‘Rough Idea’, won a Royal Philharmonic Society Award in 2020.

Isaac Julien CBE

Isaac Julien is a critically acclaimed British artist and filmmaker and a Distinguished Professor of the Arts at the University of California Santa Cruz. His work breaks down the barriers between different artistic disciplines, drawing from and commenting on film, dance, photography, music, theatre, painting, and sculpture, and uniting them to construct powerful visual narratives through multi-screen film installations. In his films and multi-screen installations, he explores the movement of people across different temporalities and spaces, to give voice to the experiences of disregarded, often black, and queer narratives. His installations have been widely presented in major museums and galleries around the world, including TATE, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, MAXXI Museum in Rome and many others. His current and recent works include Once Again (Statues Never Die), 2022; Lessons of the Hour (2019); and Lina Bo Bardi - A Marvellous Entanglement (2019). He is the recipient of The Royal Academy of Arts Charles Wollaston Award in 2017 and the Goslarer Kaiserring award in 2022, the most prestigious art prize in Germany.

Rohinton Minoo Kalifa OBE

Rohinton Kalifa has served on a variety of corporate and public service boards including The Court of The Bank of England, Transport for London, the England and Wales Cricket Board and as Chairman of Network International, a leading payments operator across the Middle East and Africa. He has demonstrated ongoing commitment to developing the UK fintech sector in recent years. He volunteered to Chair the Independent Fintech Strategic Review commissioned by the Chancellor at Budget 2020, which launched in July 2020 to make recommendations for government, industry and regulators on how to maintain the UK’s position as a global leader in fintech policy. During 2021 he served on the Prime Minister’s Build Back Better Business Council and as the Independent Panel Member on the competition to appoint a new Chair of NHS England.  He actively supports the work of the Royal Family, in particular the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as a Trustee of the Royal Foundation.

Iain Thomas Livingstone QPM

As Acting Chief Constable of Scotland, Iain Livingstone’s leadership provided stability and confidence to a force, subject to daily negative media reports and which had not yet cohered into one force (following the merger of eight regional forces in 2013). After he was confirmed in post in August 2018, he transformed Police Scotland from a demoralised body into one of the most trusted public services in Scotland. He transformed the force internally, restored local accountability through close working relations with local authorities, and produced historically low levels of crime and annual savings of £200m. His sound operational judgement during COP26 in Glasgow did much to smooth what could have been significant challenges in the planning stage and ensured that the event would be policed proportionately and effectively.

Dr James Smith Milne CBE DL

A self-made man, James Milne left school without qualifications as an engineering apprentice. He founded the Balmoral Group in 1980 with just five employees, steering its growth to become one of Scotland’s most successful companies. It now employs just under 700 people and has collected accolades along the way, including three Queen’s Awards for International Trade. Under his leadership, Balmoral has evolved into a major innovator in the off-shore wind sector, developing new subsea technology to increase the efficiency and lifespan of wind turbines. This evolution is key in Aberdeen and the North East, enabling it to thrive as the UK transitions away from oil and gas and reaches net zero. He recently opened a new 25-unit business centre in Aberdeen, complete with business and mentoring support to support start-ups in the area.

Martyn Oliver

Martyn Oliver is Chief Executive Officer of Outwood Grange Academies Trust (OGAT). His unwavering determination to improve underperforming schools has made a significant, lasting impact on the lives of children in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the country. He was appointed CEO in September 2016, following significant success as an executive head and regional lead within the trust. Under his leadership, 20 schools have joined the Trust, including 16 sponsored schools, six rescued from the Wakefield City Academies Trust collapse, and one Free School, developed at pace to respond to an urgent need for additional places in Middlesbrough. Under his tenure, underperforming schools joining the Trust quickly become schools that offer a good or better education to their pupils.

Dr Paul Lasseter Phillips CBE

In his 20-year career, Paul Phillips has made a major contribution to further education at local, regional and national levels including as a National Leader of Further Education. He was the Times Educational Supplement’s Further Education leader of the Year in 2019. Particularly in the last five years, he has been a dedicated champion of student well-being and learners with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. Within his own college, he has invested heavily in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), creating £50m+ employer-led world-class STEM facilities. He has played a leading role at a national level in the ‘Let’s Chat’ student/staff emotional literacy work. Such innovation led Weston College to be the only College recognised as a Beacon Mental Health Young Minds Trailblazer/winner in 2018.

Professor Stephen Huw Powis

Stephen Powis has worked in the NHS for over 30 years making him one of the most valued and trusted senior clinical leaders across the NHS. Since early 2018 he has served as the National Medical Director of NHS England. In addition, he was appointed Chief Executive of NHS Improvement. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, he demonstrated an extraordinary capacity for leadership in support of the interests of the NHS, the medical and clinical community, patient care and public health. He clinically led the complex modelling work to ensure there were sufficient beds across the NHS available for patients with Covid-19 at the height of the pandemic. Throughout the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic, he provided clinical leadership to the Government, the NHS and across the medical profession.

Ian Rankin OBE DL FRSE

Ian Rankin is a world-renowned crime writer and a bestseller on several continents. The Rebus novels, his most famous series, have been translated into 35 languages. In addition to his Rebus and Malcolm Fox novels, he has also written stand-alone novels, short stories and two stage plays. In 2019, he donated his archive of over 50 boxes of manuscripts, letters and paperwork to the National Library of Scotland. His charity, the Cordis Trust, continues to fund a range of good causes in the UK and elsewhere.

Aziz Sheikh OBE FRSE

Aziz Sheikh has made an immense contribution to the Covid-19 pandemic response, locally, nationally and internationally across academia, government, NHS and community domain. His international impact includes leading Scotland’s EAVE II platform – the world’s first national (5.6m people) end-to-end routine data infrastructure designed to understand natural history, identify those at high risk and investigate the effectiveness of interventions for Covid-19. His foresight led to the world’s first ever whole country estimates of AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine effectiveness overall for Scotland, stratified by vaccine type in different age groups. He leads the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Respiratory Health (RESPIRE) which is undertaking a programme of deep learning of CXRs to diagnose Covid-19 (Pakistan), assessment of PPE provision of frontline clinical staff (Malaysia), and psychological impacts of Covid-19 (Bangladesh).

Pascal Claude Roland Soriot

Pascal Soriot has led from the front in AstraZeneca’s (AZ) response to Covid-19. He spotted the Government’s urgent need for more Covid-19 testing capacity and offered to build a national testing centre capable of 100,000+ tests a week. Set up in under eight weeks, the Cambridge centre processed well over 3 million samples in a year and supported staff testing at NHS Addenbrooke’s Hospital. Daily, for 12 months, he demonstrated incredible leadership, working across the world to establish global partnerships to research, develop, approve and manufacture the vaccine in record time and under intense media scrutiny. Core to this work has been his personal undertaking that there be fair and equitable access to the vaccine at no-profit to AZ. By November 2021, over 2 billion doses had been supplied to over 170 countries across all 5 continents, with AZ supplying 2/3rds of the total doses distributed in low to mid income countries.

The Rt Hon Stephen Timms Mp

Stephen Timms is a former Cabinet Minister who has given four decades of dedicated public service at national and local level. He has represented East Ham in the House of Commons for over 28 years, having previously served as a councillor for the Little Ilford ward in the London Borough of Newham for ten years and led the council for four years before his election to Parliament in a by-election in 1994. He served in the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2006-07. After 2010, he continued to serve on the opposition frontbench and briefly in the shadow cabinet. He stood down from the Labour frontbench in 2015. He currently serves as the UK’s trade envoy to Switzerland and Liechtenstein. In 2020 he was elected to the chair of the cross-party Work and Pensions Select Committee. He is well-respected by Members from across the House.

James Nicol Walker CBE

As a joint Managing Director of one of the largest family run companies in the UK, Walkers Shortbread Limited, James Walker has brought international success to a once-small Scottish family concern. He has held a number of national positions within the food industry while supporting the community and economy of Aberlour. Joining the family firm 60 years ago when it was a bakery with two shops and 10 delivery vans, he has taken it to a turnover of  nearly £150m, selling to 100 countries, employing circa 1,500 people, with six factories, four in Aberlour and one in Elgin. Covid-19 brought challenges, and the company took the decision to top-up the pay of employees beyond the national furlough scheme, invested heavily in health and safety features and adapted processes that allowed production quickly to continue with minimum disruption.

The Rt Hon Jeremy Wright QC MP

Jeremy Wright has been the Conservative Member of Parliament for Kenilworth and Southam since 2010 (and previously for Rugby and Kenilworth 2005–10). Since his election in 2005 he has played an active role on the front bench of the Conservative Party, both in Government and in Opposition. From 2014-18 he was Attorney General. In this role he helped the Government to steer through many thorny legal issues including the Brexit negotiations and the international response to the Douma chemical attack in Syria, which resulted in British military action. He then spent a year as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, making a significant impact, most notably by publishing the Online Harms White Paper which sought to introduce legal regulation of social media and online publishers.