News

Sayer and Hurlston among sector figures in New Year’s Honours List 1

Governance | Jonathan Last | 7 Jan 2013

Su Sayer, chief executive at United Response, and Malcolm Hurlston, founder and president of the StepChange Debt Charity, are among those from the voluntary sector named in the Queen's 2013 New Year’s Honours List.

Sayer, already the holder of an OBE, has been awarded a CBE for services to people with disabilities in the UK.

Hurlston was also awarded a CBE. Although he has been honoured in the category of financial services, he is widely regarded in the charitable sector for being the founder of debt charity StepChange (previously called the Consumer Credit Counselling Service) and chairing the organisation since its inception in 1993 before stepping down in 2010.

In total 1,223 people have been recommended to the Queen for an award, with the Cabinet Office commenting that “72 per cent of the recipients are people who have undertaken outstanding work in their communities either in a voluntary or paid capacity”.

Further CBEs

Several more figures from the voluntary sector received CBEs. These include Reg Bailey, CEO of the Mothers' Union; Alex Beard, deputy director of the Tate Gallery; Cherie Blair for services to women’s issues and charity; John Bothamley, founder of grantmaker Four Acre Trust; James Cochrane, chair of the British Red Cross; Penny Mansfield, director of families charity OnePlusOne; Diane Martin, former director of London vulnerable women organisation Trust; Martin Spray, chief executive of the conservation group the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust; and Marie Staunton, chief executive of the international children's charity Plan UK.

Knighthoods

Martin Narey, former CEO of Barnardo’s, has been knighted for services to vulnerable people. John Leighton, director general of the National Galleries of Scotland, received the same honour.

There were also knighthoods for philanthropists Michael Heller and Martin Smith, honoured for general charitable services and charitable services to education, science and the arts respectively, as well as Terry Bramall, who founded the Liz and Terry Bramall Charitable Trust with a gross donation of £96m.

OBEs and MBEs

Jennie Evans, a head of region at the development charity Tearfund, was among those receiving OBEs, in a list which also includes two representatives from music therapy charity Nordoff Robbins, Pauline Etkin and David Munns – who are the chief executive and chair respectively.

Liz Grant, former deputy chair of the gay rights organisation Stonewall; Nick Warren, former trustee of Navca and former chief executive of Voluntary Action Sheffield; and Brett Wigdortz, chief executive of the education charity Teach First, were also honoured with OBEs.

Founder of the ovarian cancer charity Angels of Hope Maureen Clarke received an MBE, as did Frank Paterson, former chair of the Friends of the National Railway Museum, and Iain Tuckett, group director of the social enterprise Coin Street Community Builders.

Women receive 47 per cent of honours

There are 572 successful women candidates in the list, representing 47 per cent of the total. Women candidates include 13 dames, 40 CBEs and two CBs.

Five per cent of the successful candidates come from ethnic minority communities.

The British Empire Medal (BEM) has been reintroduced after a 19-year absence, the Cabinet Office saying that it “provides the opportunity to recognise an even greater number of people playing their part to create a Big Society”.

These include Janet Madrom, chairwoman of the Penlee RNLI Ladies Guild, who has been awarded the BEM for services to the Cornish community since her husband lost his life in the Penlee lifeboat disaster of 1981, and volunteers such as Rose Ritchie, 80, and 82-year-old Diane Spokes.

Directory: Mothers Union | Plan UK | Stonewall | British Red Cross | National Association for Voluntary and Community Action | National Galleries of Scotland | Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) | Tate Gallery | Tearfund | United Response
Who's Who: Su Sayer | Martin Narey | John Leighton | Malcolm Hurlston | James Cochrane