Chair of RLSB – Ian Stephenson BSc, MSc, OBE

Ian Stephenson became Chair of the Society in May 2010.

Ian has been a trustee since 2006. His initial involvement with us was because of our long standing association with Johnson Matthey. In effect Ian was the Johnson Matthey appointee to our Council of Trustees.

Notwithstanding this historical connection with Johnson Matthey, Ian’s commitment to our charitable cause stems directly from the fact that he has a daughter who is visually impaired from birth. As parent he has experienced many of the issues that confront parents of children and young people who have little or no sight so he understands only too well the issues in the educational environment. He also appreciates the difficulties and barriers that many visually impaired people face as they make the difficult transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Ian has extensive senior management experience, having been with Johnson Matthey for 21 years as it has grown to become a major international business and FTSE 100 company. He has been a member of the company’s executive committee for much of that time.

He has undertaken a number of roles in developing the company’s environmental businesses and currently has direct responsibility for the company’s professional staff including HR, pensions and environmental affairs, amongst others. Ian was awarded an OBE in 2007 for Services to the Environment.

He is Deputy Chairman of the Carbon Trust Ltd and Chairman of Carbon Trust Enterprises Ltd, which develops low carbon businesses.

Ian has a number of other responsibilities in the European precious metals and chemicals sector and intends to scale back these activities to devote more time to RLSB affairs.

Ian is a charted engineer by profession holding first and second degrees in engineering. He started his working life in the chemical industry and prior to Johnson Matthey followed an international career with Unilever.