Claire Dove OBE, DL
Chief Executive Blackburne House Group; Former Chair of Social Enterprise UKClaire Dove OBE, DL, has been a key player in the social enterprise movement since the early 1980s and has led the award-winning Blackburne House Group, one of the leading providers of adult and community education in the country, since its inception.
Blackburne House is a Beacon status college with a wide training remit for the women of Merseyside. The School for Social Entrepreneurs provides services across the Northwest of England. Over the past 30 years, the Blackburne House Group has successfully established a number of highly acclaimed, award winning social enterprises, whose products and services are sought throughout the country.
Claire has also worked to form national, regional and local policy that supports the right to education and training and promotes entrepreneurship and social enterprise. Claire was one of the three commissioners on the National Worklessness Panel that produced the Houghton Review.
From December 2007 to January 2017 Claire was Chair of Social Enterprise UK (SEUK). She is a member of the Alder Hey Hospital Trust and, until recently, was a Board Member for the Charity Commission. She has chaired the Liverpool Fairness Commission on behalf of Liverpool City Council, is currently serving on the Liverpool Mayoral Development Board and is chair of the Society Advisory Board for the British Council.
Claire was awarded an MBE for her work in the mid-nineties. She received an OBE in 2013 and was given the Queens Lifetime Achievement Award for Enterprise Promotion. She has an Honorary Fellowship of Liverpool John Moores University, a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts and was voted nationally as an exemplary leader in Regeneration. Claire is Deputy Lieutenant for Merseyside.