Julia Middleton

Julia Middleton (born 1958 in London) is the founder and chief executive officer of Common Purpose UK, an international charity that runs leadership development programmes in 18 countries across the world. The charity's aims are to "give people the skills, connections and inspiration they need to become better leaders both at work and in society".

She is a campaigner for the progression of diverse leaders in civil society.

Middleton was educated at a French lycee before gaining an Economics degree at the London School of Economics.

In 1980, she began her career at the Industrial Society, where she created Head Start, a programme providing high school dropouts with training and advice from prospective employers.

In the autumn of 1988, Middleton formed Common Purpose UK.

Common Purpose UK runs a range of leadership development courses that offer participants the inspiration, knowledge and connections to help them become more active and engaged in society.

Its courses run in 11 countries worldwide and aim at improving the way organisations work by increasing the number of informed individuals who are actively involved in shaping the future of the area in which they work.

Since 1989, more than 25,000 leaders have completed one or more Common Purpose UK courses.

Alongside her role as CEO of Common Purpose, Middleton occupies a number of non-executive roles, including Deputy Chair of the Media Standards Trust Board, a registered charity that runs Journalisted, a free online journalist portfolio designed to improve public accountability in journalism.

She is also member of the Board of Trustees for Alfanar, a venture philanthropy fund set up by Tarek Ben Halim to assist organisations in the Arab region.

She helped in the founding of DEMOS, which is accusedof being a leftist think tank, and Impetus Trust, to develop venture philanthropy in the UK.

In 1982, Middleton authored a book called Quality Circles, published by the Industrial Society in London.

She also wrote the foreword to the book How to be an even better chair: Sensible Advice from the Public & Charity Sectors, written by Sophie Petit-Zeman.

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