Lynne Brindley OBE, Chief Executive of the British Library

Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library, has been made a Dame of the British Empire in the New Year Honours. She receives the honour for services to education, having led the British Library since July 2000.

Lynne Brindley said, “I am truly delighted to receive this recognition. It is, of course, a great personal honour but it is also a tribute to my many talented colleagues at the British Library and in the library and information profession.

“It is particularly pleasing that the citation is for services for education: in a world that is ever more focused on information, expanding access to knowledge – in schools, universities, and through lifelong learning – is vital to all our futures.”

Lynne Brindley has been the Chief Executive of the British Library since July 2000. She is the first woman and the first information professional to have held the post. The BL reaches out to a wide public, increasingly through its digital services.
Lynne came to the British Library from the University of Leeds where she was Pro-Vice-Chancellor. Previously she was a senior consultant with KPMG and has held leadership positions in information technology and knowledge management at Aston University and at the London School of Economics. Lynne is active in high level international, European and national bodies concerned with media and information society initiatives, digital infrastructure and libraries, and cultural and public sector leadership. She is a visiting professor at City and Leeds universities. She has received a number of honorary degrees, including from the universities of Oxford, Leeds, Sheffield and University College London. She is a Companion of the Institute of Management and has recently been elected to the Court of the Goldsmiths' Company.

She enjoys music and is a competent pianist and enjoys buying modern art, particularly abstract landscapes and ceramics with Cornish influences; she likes to walk in the Yorkshire Dales and on the Cornish coastal footpath.