Barbara Stephens OBE

An engineer by training, Barbara Stephens spent 18 years in industry before moving to the National Economic Development Office as an Industrial Adviser for the electronics industry in 1988.

She moved to Workington, where she continues to live, to become Chief Executive of West Cumbria Development Agency from1993 until 1998, when she became Chief Executive of the Local Government Commission for England. Since 2002, she has been a recruitment consultant working principally in higher education and the public and regulatory sectors.

She was a member of the Board of the Higher Education Funding Council for England from 1995 to 2002, a Governor of St Martin’s College from 1995 to 1998 and of Cumbria Institute of the Arts from 2003 until it became part of the new University of Cumbria in August 2007, of which she is also a member of the Board of Governors. She is also a lay Vice-Chair of the Complaints Committee of the Bar Standards Board, considering complaints made against members of the Bar.

Barbara has a long-standing interest in equality and diversity issues since being outnumbered 200 to 1 by her male colleagues as an engineering apprentice. She was a member of the steering group for Women into Science and Engineering (WISE) 1984, and has extended her interest into other aspects of equality and diversity since becoming disabled in a road traffic accident in 1990. She was appointed OBE in 2002 for services to local government and in 2005 received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bradford in recognition of her work in widening participation in public life.