Dame Carolyn McCall to speak at second Helen Alexander Memorial Lecture

ITV Chief Executive Dame Carolyn McCall will deliver the 2019 Helen Alexander Memorial Lecture in London on 10^th September.

The annual address is devoted to the memory of Dame Helen Alexander, a pioneering and much-loved figure in British business, and is supported by Helen’s family and by four organisations with which she was closely associated: The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), The Economist, the University of Southampton and Informa.  This year’s lecture will be hosted by Pinsent Masons.

The Helen Alexander Memorial Lecture is now in its second year.  In 2018, it was given by Christine Lagarde, then the Managing Director of the IMF.

The overarching theme of the lecture is “Women on Business”.  Each year, the speaker will be a prominent woman talking on an important aspect of business to an audience of business leaders.

In her lecture, Carolyn McCall is expected to focus on trust in business.

Carolyn McCall, CEO of ITV, said:

“It is a great privilege to be asked to deliver the Helen Alexander Memorial Lecture because Helen was someone I admired and respected.  She was as commercial as anyone I have met, but she also had a strong moral compass and sense of conscience.  It is with that perspective that I will talk about trust in business.”

Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI Director-General, said:

“Helen was a passionate leader and advocate for women in business.  This second memorial lecture by one of the UK’s most forward-thinking CEOs, Carolyn McCall, will ensure Helen’s legacy continues to inspire change across British business and beyond.”

Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief at The Economist, said:

"Helen embodied trust in business, so it's a fitting - and highly topical - theme for the second annual lecture in her honour, by Carolyn McCall."