Julia Cleverdon

Dame Julia Charity Cleverdon, DCVO, CBE, is a British charity worker who served for 16 years as Chief Executive of Business in the Community, one of the Prince's Charities of Charles, Prince of Wales.

Having started her career in British Leyland, from 1981 to 1988, Cleverdon served in the business relations organisation The Industrial Society as Director of Education and Inner City Division. Cleverdon was appointed Chief Executive of Business in the Community on 1 April 1992. During her service she significantly expanded the charity's work, and was named one of the "50 most influential women in Britain" by "The Times". Since stepping down as Chief Executive on 1 March 2008, she has served as Vice President.

Cleverdon also has voluntary rôles as Chair of Teach First, membership of both the National Council for Educational Excellence and the Prime Minister’s Talent and Enterprise Taskforce Advisory Group, patron of the Helena Kennedy Bursary Scheme and Volunteer Reading Help, an Ambassador for the World Wildlife Fund, and director of In Kind Direct.

In recognition of her work, she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1996. In the 2002 New Year's Honours, she was also made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, and in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2008, she was upgraded to be a Dame Commander of the RVO, a knightly class.

Cleverdon was the second wife of the late John Garnett, the business relations leader, by whom she had two daughters.