Dame Mary Marsh

Dame Mary Marsh is Founding Director of the Clore Social Leadership Programme. The programme identifies, connects and develops aspiring leaders in the social sector working for the benefit of individual people and progressive social change in communities across the UK and internationally. 65 Clore Social Fellows have been appointed since October 2009.

Before taking up her post to set up the Clore Social Leadership Programme in 2008, Dame Mary was Chief Executive of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) for eight years. Prior to this, her career was in education. She was headteacher of two large comprehensive schools in the 1990s, latterly at Holland Park School in inner London.

Dame Mary was appointed as a non-executive Director of HSBC Bank plc in January 2009 and as a member of the Holdings Board Corporate Sustainability Committee later that year.

She has been Chair of the International Alumni Council and member of the Governing Body at London Business School since January 2010. She completed her MBA in 1989. Her first degree was at the University of Nottingham.

Dame Mary is Chair of the State Honours Committee and the Philanthropy Honours Committee and she is a member of the Main Honours Committee.

In October 2012 she was appointed by the Minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd, to lead a short Cabinet Office review of leadership and skills in the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector.

At the 2012 Third Sector Excellence Awards, Dame Mary was given the Luke Fitzherbert Lifetime Achievement Award. She was awarded the DBE in New Year 2007 for services to families and children.

Dame Mary was born in Liverpool and she has four sons and two grandchildren.