Dr Ruth Owen OBE - CEO of Leonard Cheshire
Ruth became CEO for Leonard Cheshire in 2021. A wheelchair user from the age of seven, Ruth believes passionately in removing the barriers disabled people face.
Prior to Leonard Cheshire, Ruth spent 17 years as CEO of Whizz-Kidz, a national children’s disability charity. Under Ruth’s leadership, the charity became the biggest provider of wheelchairs for disabled young people outside of the NHS and the leading campaigning organisation in the sector.
Highlights of her work include: Non-Executive Director of Motability Operations Group; Member of Mayor of London’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group; Regional Stakeholder Network Chair for London helping to develop the new National Strategy for Disabled People; Member of Cabinet Office’s Disabled People’s Organisation whose primary aim is the empowerment and the growth of self-advocacy of persons with disabilities.
Before moving to Whizz-Kidz, Ruth forged a successful career in the private sector, in technologies. In 2012 she was awarded an OBE in recognition of her services to disabled children and young people and in the same year she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Hull University.
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