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Lady Chalker is also Chairman of Africa Matters Limited, advises on private sector development in sub-Saharan Africa.
Born in 1942, Lynda Chalker studied at Heidelberg and London Universities, and then worked for several major companies before becoming a British Member of Parliament from 1974 to 1992. She became a life peer in the House of Lords in 1992.
From 1963 until 1969 she worked as a statistician at Unilever's research bureau Limited and in Shell Mex and BP, and then went on to forge a distinguished political career, which included becoming Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Social Security 1979-82; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Transport 1982-83 and Minister of State there from 1983 to 1986. She was Minister of State for Africa & the Commonwealth at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1986 until 1997.
She was also the International Development Minister for the UK from 1989 until 1997 and was one of only four ministers who served consecutively throughout the 18-year period of the Thatcher and Major governments in the UK.
Now Lady Chalker, she joined Unilever in 1998, first as an advisory director and then, from 2004, as a non-executive director. She is chairman of Unilever’s external affairs and corporate relations committee.
Lady Chalker is currently an independent adviser on Africa and development, to business and institutions in Britain and sub-Saharan Africa through her own company, Africa Matters Ltd.
Lady Chalker is also a non-executive director of Group 5 (Pty) Ltd, Equator Energy Limited and Freeplay Energy Group. She is a member of the international advisory board of Lafarge et Cie and of Merchant Bridge and Co. Ltd. She is the chairman of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the chairman designate of the Medicines for Malaria Venture.
She enjoys theatre, music and animal and bird watching in the bush in Africa. | 