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Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho CBE

Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho CBE

Title
Honorary Doctor
Person Type
Honorary
Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho CBE

Biography

Honorary Doctor

Co-founder of Lastminute.com, Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho CBE started the UK’s dot com boom in the late 1990s.

Today she is a businesswoman, philanthropist and public servant, with many roles including Non-Executive Director of Twitter; Chancellor of the Open University; and founder and executive chair of Doteveryone, a charity fighting for a fairer internet. She has also been a crossbench peer in the House of Lords since March 2013, becoming its youngest female member at the time.

Born in London in 1973, she was educated at Oxford High School and Westminster School, and went on to read ancient and modern history at the University of Oxford. In 1998 she started Lastminute.com, Europe’s largest travel and leisure website, with her business partner Brent Hoberman, former Governor and Patron of University of the Arts London. They took it public in 2000 and sold it in 2005 for £577 million.

From 2009 until 2013, Lane-Fox was Digital Champion for the UK. Last year she was appointed a member of the Joint Committee on National Security Strategy. She serves as Patron of AbilityNet, Reprieve and Just For Kids Law. She sits on the board of Chanel, as well as The Donmar Waterhouse and The Queens Commonwealth Trust.

In 2013, Lane-Fox was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4. In 2016, Lane-Fox was made a Distinguished Fellow of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, by HRH, The Duke of Kent, BCS's patron. Among her numerous awards and honours, she was appointed CBE in the New Year Honours List of 2013.