Page 84 - Powerlist 2019 - Digital Edition

Profiles

Dr Margaret Casely-Hayford

Chair, Shakespeare’s Globe; Chancellor, Coventry
University; Non-Executive Director, Co-op Group

There seems to be no limit to what Dr Casely-Hayford can
achieve. Earlier this year she added another string to her
career bow when she was appointed Chair of Shakespeare’s
Globe Theatre.
Her move comes after a successful period working as
the Chair of international development charity ActionAid,
a role she undertook for four years. While there, she won
£6million from the UK Government to launch Fearless,
a grass-roots campaign to end violence against women
and girls. She also led on the charity’s Mistreated report,
an exposé that revealed the unfair tax deals that lead to
inequality and poverty for the millions living in the Global
South. The report triggered a government review into the
impact of its international tax treaties.
In 2016, she was elected to the Board of the Co-op,
appointed Chancellor of Coventry University and made a
Trustee on the board of the Radcliffe Trust.
Among her many other positions is Chair of the
Advisory Board of Ultra Education, the UK’s No 1 provider
of entrepreneurial education programmes to schools.
Additionally, she advises the founder of an app called
& Third sector
GrantFairy that matches higher education courses with
Public Sector
bursaries and scholarships, which enables students to
access up to £850million worth of funding so they can leave
university without debt.
Dr Casely-Hayford is also a Patron of the John Staples
Society, a body created across the Leathersellers’ Federation
of Schools to encourage students to take an interest in
the arts, music, commerce, politics, religion and science.
Additionally, she has been a government-appointed non-
executive director of NHS England and a trustee for Great
Ormond Street Hospital and London’s Geffrye Museum.

80 Powerlist 2019