Lucy Neville Rolfe, Baroness Neville Rolfe

Early life

Neville-Rolfe was born at Wardour, Wiltshire, where she lived on a farm with her parents and four siblings. She attended Catholic convent schools before going up to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Somerville College, Oxford. Neville-Rolfe graduated with an MA and is now an Honorary Fellow of the college.

Career

After leaving university, Neville-Rolfe worked in the British Civil Service. She worked at the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1973-1992. She was a Member of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit from 1992 to 1994. She served as Director of the Deregulation Unit in the Cabinet Office from 1995-97.

Neville-Rolfe then moved to Tesco and served as Group Director of Corporate Affairs from 1997 to 2006. She served as Company Secretary from 2004-2006. She served on the Board from 2006 as Executive Director (Corporate and Legal Affairs) until she retired in January 2013. Whilst she was at Tesco the company moved from its core UK grocery roots into non-food services – and 13 overseas markets across the world.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe DBE CMG joined the House of Lords as a Conservative Peer in October 2013 and served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Minister for Intellectual Property from July 2014 until July 2016. From May 2015 she was also Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Neville-Rolfe was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 17 July 2016.

Before assuming her ministerial responsibilities she spoke in the House of Lords on business, vocational education, broadband, regulatory reform and competitiveness issues. Neville-Rolfe is a particularly prominent speaker on issues concerning business. The aim is to encourage government to facilitate and support UK businesses, to remove unnecessary tax and regulatory burdens, to roll-out broadband across the UK and to enable the growth of small businesses. She has also delivered speeches on UK foreign trade agreements, with particular interest in China and India. She also sat on the Parliamentary Select Committee for Affordable Childcare

Neville-Rolfe had many non-executive positions which she relinquished on appointment. She was a non-executive director of ITV Plc and a member of the supervisory board of Metro Group, a large German-based international retailer and wholesaler. Neville-Rolfe was also President of EuroCommerce, the pan-European retail trade association, and sat on the boards of 2 Sisters Food Group and Hermes Equity Ownership Services and on PwC's Advisory Board. She is a member of the London Business School's Governing Body.

Honours and awards

Neville-Rolfe has twice been honoured by the Queen: in 2005 (CMG) for her service on the Foreign and Commonwealth Board and in 2012 (DBE) for services to industry and the voluntary sector.

She was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 2005 Birthday Honours, and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours. On 10 September 2013 she was created a life peer taking the title Baroness Neville-Rolfe, of Chilmark in the County of Wiltshire.

Personal life

Neville-Rolfe is married to Sir Richard Packer (Permanent Secretary at Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1993 until 2000). They have four sons. Sir Richard was knighted in 2001, between this time and her elevation to the peerage in 2013 she was formally afforded the style Lady Packer.