Dame Sharon White

Dame Sharon is the first ever female chair of John Lewis Partnership having previously made history as the first woman – and first black person – to be Chief Executive of the media regulator Ofcom. Prior to these roles, she had a stellar career in the civil service, rising to become a Permanent Secretary at the Treasury, the first black person to hold the position and only the second woman in the role. Born in East London and brought up in Leyton, Dame Sharon’s parents had emigrated to the UK from Jamaica in the 1950s as part of the Windrush generation. After attending Cambridge and earning an MSc in economics from University College London, she worked for a church in Birmingham before joining the civil service in 1989. Dame Sharon worked first at the Treasury before joining the British Embassy in Washington. Her career has also included spells at the 10 Downing Street policy unit during the Blair government, the World Bank and as Director General at the Department for International Development (2003 to 2009), and then at the Ministry of Justice (2009 to 2011), and also at the Department for Work and Pensions.