Dame Fiona Reynolds
Biography
Dame Fiona Reynolds DBE became Chair of the RAUs Governing Council in January 2022. Her previous role was as Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 2012 where she served from 2012-2021. She joined Emmanuel after a long career in the voluntary sector, latterly as Director-General of the National Trust from 2001-2012. During her time as DG she made the Trust warmer and more welcoming, bringing the houses to life and raising the profile of the Trust’s work in the countryside.
Before the Trust, she was Director of the Women’s Unit in the Cabinet Office (1998-2000), Director of the Council for the Protection of Rural England (now Campaign to Protect Rural England) from 1987-98 and Secretary to the Council for National Parks (now Campaign to Protect National Parks) from 1980-87. She read Geography and land Economy as an undergraduate at Cambridge University.
Fiona also holds a number of non-Executive roles. She is Chair of the National Audit Office, a Trustee of the Grosvenor Estate, a Non-Executive Director of Wessex Water, a Trustee of the Green Alliance, and Chair of the International National Trusts Organisation, the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England, Cambridge University’s Botanic Garden and Cambridge University’s Bennett Institute for Public Policy. She was a Panel Member for the Glover Review of Protected Landscapes, Adviser to the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission and a member of the Advisory Panel for the Dasgupta Review of the Economics of Biodiversity.