Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
Founder
Africa Matters Limited

United Kingdom

Lynda Chalker founded Africa Matters Limited (AML), a pan African group of advisers, in 1997. They seek to take investment into African businesses and keep them viable. With her considerable experience of African cultures and relationships, and of the numerous business and development issues crucial to Africa, she supports the work of AML, providing leadership and political insights which help make Africa Matters Limited unique.

Parliament

Lynda has been a member of the Lower and Upper Houses of the UK Parliament for over thirty years, she was one of only four Ministers who served continuously throughout the Thatcher and Major Governments and was made a Life Peer in 1992.

Lynda Chalker was a British Member of Parliament (for Wallasey in North West England) from 1974 to 1992; 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 at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office from 1986 until 1997 working on Europe until 1989 and throughout on Africa and the Commonwealth. In 1987 she was made a Privy Counsellor. Lynda was also the International Development Minister for the UK from 1989 until 1997.

Business and Industry

Lady Chalker first served as a Unilever Advisory Director (1998 – 2004) and then as the first and then the only woman Non-Executive Board Director of both Unilever NV and plc from 2004 to 2007.

Lynda has been a non-executive director for a number of major companies, including Capital Shopping Centres Ltd (1997-2000), Freeplay Energy Plc (1997-2006), Ashanti Goldfields Co. Ltd (2000-2004) and Equator Exploration Ltd (2005-2007).

Lynda has been on the Board of Group 5 (Pty) Ltd in South Africa since 2001. She advises Lafarge International, MerchantBridge Group, the World Bank and is a member of the African Advisory Board of the Renaissance Group.

Her Board appointments have always covered business in Africa, governance matters and corporate social investment. She is a member of the Transparency International Advisory Council in the UK, and has worked on Codes of Business Principles for a number of Boards.

Investments and Development in Africa

Lynda is the co-coordinator of the Honorary International Investment Council, first for President Obasanjo and now for President Yar ‘Adua of Nigeria, and a member of both the Tanzanian and Ugandan Investment Round Tables and the Kenyan Economic & Social Council.

Public/Private Partnerships and Not for Profit bodies

Lynda is a founder Executive Trustee of the Global Leadership Foundation (GLF), set up by past President F W De Klerk, and of the Investment Climate Facility for Africa (ICF) and served as a Trustee of the Nelson Mandela Legacy Trust (NMLT) from its inception.

The Chalker Foundation for Africa was established by Lynda Chalker in response to the need to develop and support medical knowledge and training on the African continent.

For eight years she was Chairman of the Board of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and for many years a Vice President of the Liverpool School for Tropical Medicine. She was a Governor of The Ditchley Foundation for International Affairs from 1998 until 2007.

Lynda is Chairman of the Board of Medicines for Malaria Venture, President of Practical Action (formerly the Intermediate Technology Development Group), Vice-President of WaterAid and Honorary Vice President of British Red Cross. She is a Trustee of the African Medical and Research Foundation, University of Cape Town and Hives Save Lives (Africa). Additionally, Lynda is Patron of Afrikids, a Ghanaian Children’s charity based in Bolgatanga, Upper East Ghana.