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UAL appoints Polly Mackenzie as Chief Social Purpose Officer

Headshot of Polly Mackenzie who is stood in front of a red brick wall
  • Written byUAL Press Office
  • Published date 14 March 2022
Headshot of Polly Mackenzie who is stood in front of a red brick wall
Polly Mackenzie | Image courtesy of Money & Mental Health Policy Institute

Polly Mackenzie has been appointed UAL Chief Social Purpose Officer. She will take up post in July 2022.

Polly is Chief Executive of Demos, the UK’s leading social value think tank, bringing citizen voice and lived experience into public policy discussions. Previous roles include founding CEO of the Money & Mental Health Policy Institute, founding CEO of the Women’s Equality Party, and Policy Director to the Deputy Prime Minister from 2010 to 2015.

Polly has demonstrated her commitment to social purpose throughout her career, combining both great ideas and the skills to turn them into reality. Everyone at UAL looks forward to working with her to change society through UAL’s knowledge and creativity.

— James Purnell, UAL President & Vice-Chancellor
I am thrilled to become Chief Social Purpose Officer at UAL. I hope to help UAL become a leader in the global movement to structure our anchor institutions around social purpose. This will transform our local, national and international economies, and embed social, racial and climate justice for all.

UAL's unique creative core will be vital to success in this global mission: the arts are central to human wellbeing, and an essential component of delivering change and holding societies together.

— Polly Mackenzie

Polly’s recent publications include The Gravitational State, The Humble Policy Maker, Living in the Exponential Age, and The Social State: From Transactional to Relational Public Services. She is a member of the Social Value Taskforce, the British Academy Data Science Advisory Group, and the Poverty Strategy Commission. Regular media appearances include BBC News, Newsnight, Question Time, Sky News, The Times, Guardian and Prospect.