Sally Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Huyton (born 28 June 1959), is a British Labour Party politician, and Master of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. She is the former Chair of

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted is responsible for inspecting a range of educational institutions, incl ...

Early life

Morgan was educated at Belvedere School for Girls, then a

direct grant grammar school A direct grant grammar school was a type of selective secondary school in the United Kingdom that existed between 1945 and 1976. One quarter of the places in these schools were directly funded by central government, while the remainder attracted ...

in Liverpool, and at

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills ( Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_cha ...

, from where she graduated in 1980 with a BA in

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...

. After taking a

Postgraduate Certificate in Education The Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE/PGCertEd) is a one- or two-year higher education course in England, Wales and Northern Ireland which provides training in order to allow graduates to become teachers within maintained schools. In ...

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

in 1981, she worked as a teacher at Beverley School in New Malden, Surrey from 1981 to 1985. She later received an MA in Education from the

Institute of Education IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society (IOE) is the education school of University College London (UCL). It specialises in postgraduate study and research in the field of education and is one of UCL's 11 constituent faculties. Prior to ...

, London. In the early 1980s, she was active in student politics. As a member of the Labour Students, she was an active member of the

British Youth Council The British Youth Council, known informally as BYC, is a UK charity that works to empower young people and promote their interests. The national charity, run by young people, exists to represent the views of young people to government and decisi ...

Executive Committee.

Career

Political career

From 1985, she worked for the Labour Party under John Smith and

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of t ...

before joining Blair's political office in

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following the 1997 general election. She was made a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

as Baroness Morgan of Huyton, ''of

Huyton Huyton ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. Part of the Liverpool Urban Area, it borders the Liverpool suburbs of Dovecot, Knotty Ash and Belle Vale, and the neighbouring village of Roby, with which ...

in the County of Merseyside'', on 20 June 2001. She was

Minister of State Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. I ...

for Women in the

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government object ...

from June to November 2001 before rejoining 10 Downing Street as Director of Government Relations. She left Downing Street in 2005. She was one of the three advisors Blair was most dependent upon, along with Jonathan Powell and

Alastair Campbell Alastair John Campbell (born 25 May 1957) is a British journalist, author, strategist, broadcaster and activist known for his roles during Tony Blair's leadership of the Labour Party. Campbell worked as Blair's spokesman and campaign director ...

Business career

In April 2006 she was appointed a board member of the

Olympic Delivery Authority The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) was a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, responsible for ensuring the delivery of venues, infrastructure and legacy for the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games ...

. In November 2005 she was appointed as a

non-executive director A non-executive director (abbreviated to non-exec, NED or NXD), independent director or external director is a member of the board of directors of a corporation, such as a company, cooperative or non-government organization, but not a member of th ...

of The Carphone Warehouse Group plc, as well as being a non-executive director of TalkTalk from 2005 to 2010, and on the Lloyds Pharmacy health care advisory panel. She was a non-executive director of Southern Cross Healthcare from 2006 until it had severe financial problems in 2011, before the company declared insolvency the following year. She also serves as Advisor to the Board of the children's charity

Absolute Return for Kids Absolute Return for Kids (ARK), is an international children's educational charity based in London, UK. Ark is a registered charity under English law. In its reporting year 2017–18, excluding its few subsidiaries, it saw gross income of £1 ...

(ARK) and has been chair of the board of Trustees of The Future Leaders Trust, as well as its successor organisations, since 2006. In July 2017 Morgan was appointed as senior non-executive director of building and support services company

Carillion Carillion plc was a British multinational construction and facilities management services company headquartered in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, prior to its liquidation in January 2018. Carillion was created in July 1999, following ...

, serving on the audit, business integrity, nomination, remuneration and sustainability committees. The company, which had many large government contracts and 43,000 staff, went into liquidation in January 2018, with the

UK Government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_est ...

ordering a fast-track investigation into the directors to consider possible misconduct.

Other work

In 2007 and 2008 Morgan chaired an inquiry into young adult volunteering, named The Morgan Inquiry, sponsored by the All-Party Parliamentary Scout Group and supported by

The Scout Association The Scout Association is the largest Scouting organisation in the United Kingdom and is the World Organization of the Scout Movement's recognised member for the United Kingdom. Following the origin of Scouting in 1907, the association was fo ...

. She was appointed chair of

by the Conservative-led government from March 2011 and left that post in autumn 2014. Morgan is a trustee of the

Education Policy Institute The Education Policy Institute (EPI) is an education policy think tank that aims to promote high-quality education outcomes through research and analysis. It is based at 150 Buckingham Palace Road, in central London. History It was formed in 2 ...

, a Westminster-based

research institute A research institute, research centre, research center or research organization, is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often i ...

Academic career

In February 2019, it was announced that Morgan would succeed Nicola Padfield as

Master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge in October 2019. She was officially admitted on 1 October, and is the college's 9th Master.

Personal life

Huyton is married to barrister John Lyons, whom she met while at Durham. They have been married for 35 years and have two adult sons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Sally Baroness Morgan of Huyton 1959 births Alumni of Van Mildert College, Durham Alumni of King's College London Alumni of the UCL Institute of Education Labour Party (UK) officials British special advisers Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II Labour Party (UK) life peers Living people People educated at The Belvedere Academy Carillion people