Rona Fairhead, The Baroness Fairhead CBE
Major Career Roles:
- Chair, RS Group plc
- Minister of State, UK Department for International Trade
- Peer, UK House of Lords
- Chair, BBC Trust
- Chair and CEO, Financial Times Group Ltd
- Division Chair and former CEO and CFO, Pearson plc
Other Career Highlights:
- Chair, HSBC North America Holdings Inc, and Non-Executive Director, HSBC Holdings plc
- Non-Executive Director, PepsiCo Inc.
- Non-Executive Director, Oracle Corp.
- Chair, Interactive Data Corp.
- Ambassador for UK Trade & Investment and Non-Executive Director, UK Cabinet Office
- Non-Executive Director, Economist Newspaper Ltd
Baroness Rona Fairhead has extensive international Board experience across public and private companies and within the aerospace and defence, chemicals, education, financial services, government, media and publishing sectors.
Baroness Fairhead is Chair of RS Group plc (formerly Electrocomponents plc), an Independent Director and member of the Finance and Audit Committees of Oracle Corp., a Director of healthcare start-up SurvivorNet and a member of the UK House of Lords. She is also a member of the External Advisory Group at McKinsey & Co. and an Adviser to CVC.
Baroness Fairhead was previously the Chair and CEO of the Financial Times Group; a Non-Executive Director of PepsiCo Inc. and HSBC Holdings plc.; and she was also CFO of Pearson plc.
Prior to Pearson, she held Senior Executive roles in ICI plc and Bombardier Inc., both with Shorts and Bombardier Aerospace Services in the UK.
Baroness Fairhead was the first female Chair of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) and, after stepping down from the BBC, was invited by the UK Prime Minister to become the UK Government’s Trade and Export Minister, a role she held until 2019.
Baroness Fairhead was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2012 for services to UK industry and was made a Life Peer in 2017.
