Dame Fiona Reynolds
Fiona is a Life Fellow and was our Master between 2012–2021.
BiographyFiona read Geography and Land Economy for her undergraduate degree at Newnham College, Cambridge, before studying for an MPhil in the Department of Land Economy. She then worked in the conservation charity sector for thirty years, culminating in her role as Director-General of the National Trust.
After twelve years at the National Trust, she came to Emmanuel as Master, where she launched the Emma Enables project, which has led to exciting new activity and facilities across the College. She now holds a number of non-Executive positions including Chair of the National Audit Office and Chair of Governors at the Royal Agricultural University (based in Cirencester, near her home) as well as chairing the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England, as Chair of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission and as a trustee of the Grosvenor Estate. All these roles play to her lifelong interest (inspired by geography) in people and place, and how they relate to each other in the past, present and future. In 2016 she published her book The Fight for Beauty, which drew on her longstanding interest in the importance of beauty to everyone, and how—once important—it has been written out of the script