Mary Ann Sieghart has spent most of her life as a journalist and broadcaster. She was at the Times for nearly 20 years, as Assistant Editor, Comment Editor, Arts Editor and political columnist, and has also worked at the FT, the Economist and the Independent.
She presents programmes on BBC Radio 4 and the World Service. She spent 2018-19 as a Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, researching and writing a book about women and authority – how and why we still take women less seriously than men – and is currently a Senior Academic Visitor at Oriel.
Mary also chairs the non-partisan Social Market Foundation think tank and is a trustee and chair of the investment committee of The Scott Trust, which owns The Guardian and The Observer. She is senior trustee of the Kennedy Memorial Trust and has sat on the boards of Tate Modern, Ofcom’s Content Board, the Heritage Lottery Fund and three large FTSE-quoted investment trusts.