Heather Rabbatts is Non-Executive Chair of the Board of Shed Media plc, and holds a number of other board appointments, including the UK Film Council, Crossrail, and the Royal Opera House She was also voted, by Parliamentarians, the 2008 Scottish Widows Business Woman of the Year.
Heather Rabbatts was a BBC Governor, the youngest ever CEO of Merton and Lambeth Council, Head of Education at Channel 4, Governor of the London School of Economics, Director of the Bank of England, and a Trustee of the British Council.
In her role as Executive Deputy Chairman of Millwall Football club proved to be one of her biggest challenge yet. Few women are welcomed into the world of football, far fewer of mixed race who admit to knowing next to nothing about football. but she has always relished challenge and took the lead on arrangements for a significant investment into the Club by an American Consortium, thereby securing its future. She left Millwall in 2009.
Described as one of Britain’s most influential women and famed for taking on “the worst job in local government” and now “the worst job in football”, Heather credits her robust nature to the influence of her domineering Jamaican mother, Cynthia — one of the first black fashion models in the United States.
Until 1991 she had held a variety of managerial positions at the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham before being appointed Deputy Chief Executive with responsibility for policy, personnel, communications, equality and community relations. She then moved to be the Chief Executive of the London Borough of Merton.
During her time with Lambeth Heather achieved a remarkable turnaround in the financial state of the borough, the quality of service and management, and staff morale. Council tax collections went up from 56 per cent, then the lowest in Britain, up to a more respectable 74 per cent, more than £40m had been saved in the budget, and the workforce had been reduced by 1,200 to 9,000.
Heather's outstanding leadership skills have been widely reported in the national press, and are testimony to her clear sense of vision and ability to effect real change within large organisations.