Ruth Turner

Ruth Turner has worked closely with scientists, artists and inventors, drug addicts, religious extremists, Cabinet Ministers, public health experts, environmentalists, global sports stars and CEOs of some of the UK’s biggest corporates. She is currently Senior Director at the Forward Institute, a coalition of 25 major public and private institutions exploring issues of responsible leadership.

Prior to joining the Forward Institute, Ruth founded the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and ran it for six years, establishing counter-extremism programmes in 30 countries. After returning from maternity leave she took a part-time role, leading their work on mediation between Christians and Muslims in conflict zones in northern Nigeria. She was also a founding trustee of the Tony Blair Sports Foundation and served on the Board for 10 years.

Ruth was Director of Government Relations in the Prime Minister’s Office from 2005-07. Prior to that, she spent 13 years as an award-winning social entrepreneur, including as co-founder of The Big Issue in the North. She has set up a social research firm; worked as a talent scout for NESTA, sat on boards at Yale University and Salford University; and founded and been a trustee of numerous charities and social enterprises in the UK and USA.