Gillian Walnes MBE

Gillian was one of the founders of the Anne Frank Trust UK in 1990 and has been its Executive Director since then. The Trust is the UK partner of the world renowned Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

Gillian has long been involved in human rights campaigns and initiatives. She is an experienced TV and radio broadcaster and has written many newspaper op-eds.

The Anne Frank Trust draws on the power of Anne Frank’s life and diary to challenge prejudice and reduce hatred, encouraging people to embrace positive attitudes, responsibility and respect for others. It does this through exhibitions, events and activities that educate over 40,000 young people a year throughout the United Kingdom. http://www.annefrank.org.uk

Key achievements as Executive Director of the Anne Frank Trust have been:
• Creation of the Anne Frank Children to Children Appeal for Bosnia in which children from all over the world participated
• Inception of the Oscar and Emmy winning feature length documentary
“Anne Frank Remembered”
• Creation of the Anne Frank Declaration signed by world leaders, such as Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan and Bill Clinton, and tens of thousands of young people
• Creation of the Anne Frank Tree planting programme
• Expansion of the Trust’s activities from one travelling exhibition to twelve exhibitions touring concurrently and many national educational projects
• Creation and establishment of the Anne Frank Awards for Moral
Courage (most recently awarded to Malala Yousafzai)
• Establishment of the Anne Frank Prison Project
• Creation of the Thirteen in 13 letters to the Prime Minister campaign for young teenagers

Gillian became a Member of the Order of the British Empire in The Queen’s New Year Honours 2010. She accepted the honour on behalf of “the hugely talented and dedicated team who make up the Anne Frank Trust”.