Dame Fiona Reynolds is this year's Outstanding Leader

Charity Awards | Tania Mason | 15 Jun 2012

Dame Fiona Reynolds, director general of the National Trust since 2000, has won the 2012 Outstanding Leadership Award at this year’s Charity Awards.

Dame Fiona was presented with the Award by TV presenter Jo Coburn, in front of an audience of fellow voluntary sector dignitaries, celebrities, representatives of shortlisted charities, and a host of celebrities.

She said she was “incredibly honoured and privileged to receive this award” and went on to speak about her time at the National Trust:

“All I tried to do in my time at the National Trust was help it to learn to love people as much as places, and to help it to reconnect us with our 19th century roots of philanthropy and generosity and a passion for beauty, nature and history, and how much these things matter to everybody in the country whatever their circumstances and whatever their interests.”

She then went on to pay tribute to her fellow charity representatives in the audience:

“If there is one thing that being here tonight has done, it has made me feel incredibly humble about all of the things that all of you here are doing. Although it is difficult times for charities, in a sense the really extraordinary thing that is going on is the degree to which the whole of this country is now participating in this civil society that we care so passionately about - the stories, the generosity, the passion and vision, the dedication or effort and sheer hard work that we have heard about tonight.

“I am incredibly honoured to have played my part but my heart goes out to all of you – thank you so much.”

Reynolds’ career has been steeped mainly in the conservation sector, with lengthy terms at the Council for National Parks and CPRE before the National Trust – though she also spent two years at the Cabinet Office under Tony Blair’s government, as director of the new Women’s Unit.

She is due to leave the National Trust shortly to take up a new post as Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, though she will take a year out first to write a book.

Click here to read Tania Mason’s interview with Dame Fiona.

Directory: National Trust
Who's Who: Fiona Reynolds

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.