Marie Curie Cancer Care CEO Thomas Hughes-Hallett, RNIB chief executive Lesley-Anne Alexander and former Navca CEO Kevin Curley were among a host of voluntary sector figures recognised in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Hughes-Hallett was knighted for services to palliative care. Brian Pomeroy CBE, former chairman of Centrepoint and Homeless Link and the first chair of the National Lottery Commission, was also knighted for services to financial inclusion and the voluntary sector. And philanthropist Theresa Sackler was made a Dame for services to the arts.
RNIB chief executive and Acevo chair Lesley-Anne Alexander was awarded a CBE for services to the voluntary sector. Kevin Carey, her chair at RNIB, said: “Lesley-Anne has made an enormous difference to the lives of hundreds of thousands of blind people through her structural reform of the sector and countless acts of individual kindness.
“One rarely meets someone who is both compassionate and fearless and it is unique to meet someone who is equally committee to her own enterprises, the sector in which it works and the voluntary sector at large.”
Kevin Curley also got a CBE, for services to the voluntary and community sector.
CBEs also went to Carole Cochrane, ambassador and former CEO of the Princess Royal Trust for Carers and Bob Reitemeier, CEO of Essex Community Foundation.
James Hughes-Hallett, who next year will become chair of the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, received a CMG for services to British business interests in Asia and Australasia.
Among those voluntary sector figures receiving OBEs were Michael Allen, former chair of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts; former Oxfam chair Professor John Gaventa; Everyclick founder Polly Gowers, for services to philanthropy; Eric Low, CEO of Myeloma UK; Ruth Owen, chief executive of Whizz-Kidz; Jane Ryder, former chief executive of Scottish regulator OSCR; John Reynolds, vice-president of Save the Children; Wendy van den Hende, former chief executive of Personal Finance Education Group; William Travers, CEO of the Born Free Foundation.
Those awarded MBEs included Sarah de Carvalho, founder of the charity Happy Child which rescues street children in Brazil; Fareshare founder and former chief executive Anthony Lowe; Kenneth Allinson, chief executive of Richmond YMCA; Ian Bothwell , founder of the Crossfire Trust in Northern Ireland; Susanna Dawson, former chair of the National Childminding Association; Elizabeth Nelson, vice-chairman of the Motor Neurone Disease Association; Heather Monteverde, general manager of Macmillan Cancer Support Northern Ireland; Ashley Sweetland, vice-chairman of the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services; and John Sutherland, project co-ordinator for Leonard Cheshire Disability in Scotland.
Fundraisers that received MBEs included Eleanore Huston, fundraiser for RNLI and Christine Ingham, for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.
