Annette Williams

Annette Williams

Founding Director of the UKRC

Annette Williams is the Founding Director of the UKRC. Annette is a passionate advocate for placing gender equality at the heart of business’ planning in order to transform learning and workplace cultures which present barriers to women’s career advancement in science, engineering and technology. Following working in and teaching engineering, Annette went on to set up a number of large scale women in SET initiatives which led to establishing the UKRC for the UK Government in 2003. Over the past decade Annette has been responsible for securing and directing the largest sustained investment in gender equality in SET made in the UK to date. 

From September 2011, Annette stepped down as Director of the UKRC and now continues her commitment through a non-executive role on the UKRC board and as an ambassador for the UKRC and WISE. In 2011 the Open University conferred on Honorary Doctorate on Annette. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, the UK representative on the Helsinki Group for Women in Science and Chair of the WISE Advisory Board. Annette is also a Governor of Hugh Baird College in Merseyside.