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Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos of Brondesbury

(1954-), Chief Executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission; Government Whip, House of Lords

Sitter in 2 portraits
Born in Guyana, Amos studied at the Universities of Warwick, Birmingham and East Anglia. After working in equal opportunities, training and management services in local government in the London boroughs of Lambeth, Camden and Hackney, she became Chief Executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission (1989-94). Created a Life Peer in 1997. Joined the Cabinet as International Development Secretary before becoming Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council in October 2003. It was at this time that she was also appointed a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. In 2015 Amos was appointed Director of SOAS, University of London, becoming the first black woman to head a university in the United Kingdom.

Watch a film clip on the sitter from the BBC Archive in the Media section below

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Valerie, Baroness Amos of Brondesbury; Rosalind, Baroness Howells of St Davids; Patricia, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, by Robert Taylor - NPG x125032

Valerie, Baroness Amos of Brondesbury; Rosalind, Baroness Howells of St Davids; Patricia, Baroness Scotland of Asthal

by Robert Taylor
cibachrome print, 27 January 2000
On display in Room 16 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG x125032

Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos of Brondesbury, by Horace Ové - NPG x126734

Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos of Brondesbury

by Horace Ové
giclée colour print, 2004
NPG x126734

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Rachel Wang

07 July 2017, 17:06

Valerie currently is a professor at SOAS.

I recently produced a film about her.

http://www.1000londoners.com/londoners/valerie-amos/

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