We’re delighted to announce that Julie Bentley, CEO of Girlguiding, the largest charity for girls and young women in the UK, has agreed to be the Keynote Speaker at our 2016 Annual Lunch.
We know that many of the guests attending our lunch will have some link to Girlguiding – either as former Brownies or Guides themselves or being related to someone who is currently connected in some way – and we’re sure you’ll enjoy meeting and hearing Julie speak.
Julie has dedicated her career to working in the not for profit sector and in 2014 was named number five on the Radio 4 Women’s Hour Power list of Game Changers in the UK. In the same year she was voted Britain’s Most Admired Charity Chief Executive at the Third Sector Awards.
Never a Brownie or Girl Guide herself, she was brought up in what she describes as “a happy working class family in Essex” and it took her a little while to find her own self assurance and sense of purpose. A painfully shy child, who was bullied at primary school, she later went on to become Head Girl, but left school with very few qualifications. In her 30s she used a bequest from her mother to fund her Master’s degree.
She says of the Girl Guides:
It is not about itchy brown uniforms and sewing and baking. It is a modern, contemporary, vibrant organisation.
Julie was a Castaway on Radio 4 Desert Island Discs in December 2014.
Read Girlguiding’s Girls’ Attitudes Survey 2015 (it makes fascinating reading).
Sign up to receive priority booking information for our 2016 Annual Lunch.