The Right Honourable Baroness Usha Prashar of Runnymede, CBE has been a Crossbench (independent) member of the House of Lords since 1999. She has also been a member of the Privy Council since 2009. During her 50-year career, spanning public, not for profit and private sectors she has made an important contribution to public policy and public life in the UK.
Baroness Prashar has led and chaired several significant public and voluntary organisations with distinction. She has also served as a non- executive director of Channel 4, Unite Group PLC, ITV, The Cabinet Office, and Nationwide Building Society.
In The House of Lords, she has chaired and served on Select Committees and, at present, is a member of the Post Legislative Scrutiny Legislative Select Committee examining the 2014 Families and Children’s Act.
She started her career working in race-related bodies, namely, the former Race Relations Board and then as Chief Executive of the Runnymede Trust. While working with these bodies she concluded that to drive organisational and policy changes, and to make diversity and inclusion an integral component, she needed to work in mainstream institutions.
She successfully transitioned to some very significant and demanding leadership roles in the mainstream voluntary and public organisations. These included The National Council of Voluntary Organisations, The British Council, First Civil Service Commissioner, Chairman of the Judicial Appointments Commission, and membership of The Iraq Inquiry among others.
This experience has given her unique insights and understanding of approaches needed to achieve organisational changes and how to implement inclusion and diversity policies. It has also given her a deep understanding of public policy, public administration, the machinery of government, good governance practices and intercultural relations in international contexts.
Baroness Prashar is deeply committed to social justice and bringing about meaningful and sustainable change. She has proven ability to work with people from different backgrounds and cultures to achieve this.