Sarah Hogg, Viscountess Hailsham


Sarah Hogg, Viscountess Hailsham, Baroness Hogg is an English economist, journalist, and politician. She was the first woman to chair a FTSE 100 company.

Biography

She was born as Sarah Elizabeth Mary Boyd-Carpenter, her father being John Boyd-Carpenter, Baron Boyd-Carpenter, a former Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster-General. She attended the Roman Catholic girls' boarding school St Mary's School Ascot. Later she attended Lady Margaret Hall at the University of Oxford where she read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. While at Oxford University, she edited Cherwell, the student newspaper.
Through her 1968 marriage to Member of Parliament Douglas Hogg, 3rd Viscount Hailsham, she is Viscountess Hailsham. However, following the granting of a life peerage in 1995, she is Baroness Hogg in her own right.

Career

Journalism

She was an economics editor for The Independent newspaper. She was also an early presenter of Channel 4 News, but her voice, with its uncertainty of pitch, was felt by many viewers to be a distraction. At this time she portrayed Margaret Thatcher in a television docudrama of negotiations between the UK and Irish governments.

Politics

Hogg was the head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit for Sir John Major. With Jonathan Hopkin Hill, she wrote about the Major years in her book Too Close to Call.
In 1995, she was granted a life peerage and now sits as a crossbencher in the House of Lords as Baroness Hogg, of Kettlethorpe in the County of Lincolnshire.

Business

As Chairman of 3i Group from 2002, she became the first woman to chair a FTSE 100 company.
In 2010 she was appointed the Chairman of the Financial Reporting Council. She is also the chairman of Frontier Economics Limited. Other current and former board memberships include the Financial Conduct Authority, BG Group, the BBC, P&O Cruises, P&O Princess, and Eton College.

Personal life

Hogg is married to Douglas Hogg, 3rd Viscount Hailsham and together they have two children:
She is a trustee of the school where she was educated and also a trustee of the charitable Trusthouse Foundation.

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