Mertonians recognised in Queen’s Birthday Honours

Each year, the Queen’s Birthday Honours List recognises the accomplishments of extraordinary people across the UK and beyond. Among the 2021 recipients were two alumni of Merton:

  • Kate Josephs née Kelly (1996) was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath for public service. Her career as a senior leader in government includes senior positions in HM Treasury, the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit, Department for Education and latterly as Director General of the Cabinet Office Covid Taskforce. She spent three years in Washington DC as Executive Director of the US federal Performance Improvement Council during the Obama administration and in January returned to her native South Yorkshire as Chief Executive of Sheffield City Council.
  • Justin Gilbert (1978), who has worked for the British Council for over 30 years, was awarded an OBE for services to promoting UK education and culture overseas.

The College is extremely proud of its alumni for the successes they have achieved in their areas of expertise, and the benefit this has brought to their communities and to the wider world.

We may have missed other Mertonians recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours: please do get in touch with development@merton.ox.ac.uk to let us know if this is the case.