Dame Maria Miller appointed Chair of SafeLives
Following an extensive and rigorous process, the SafeLives Board of Trustees has appointed the Rt Hon Dame Maria Miller DBE as our new Chair, to take up the role from June 2025.
Maria worked for 20 years in communications, latterly as a Board Director at Grey and Rowland/Saatchi, before being elected to the House of Commons in 2005. In Parliament, Maria served as a Cabinet Minister in David Cameron’s coalition government, putting into law the right for same sex couples to marry.
Following her Ministerial roles, in 2015 Maria was elected to chair the newly established cross-party Women and Equalities Select Committee, and she was also vice chair of the All Party Group on Domestic Abuse. Her experience in equality and domestic abuse matters led to Maria being appointed to Chair the joint House of Lords and Commons scrutiny committee for the Domestic Abuse Bill before it became law in 2021. In 2022 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II made Maria a Dame Commander of the British Empire for her nationally important contribution to equality.
Since leaving Parliament in 2024 Maria has been appointed as the first ever Independent Chair of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and will take up her new role as Chair of SafeLives in June.
Alex Butler, Vice Chair of SafeLives and Chair of the recruitment panelWe were incredibly impressed by Maria Miller’s absolute commitment to ending domestic abuse and violence against women and girls. She has an impressive track record in this area and demonstrated a really strong alignment with our values as an organisation, as well as a firm ambition to make sure we remain a leader in evidence-based solutions and advocacy – finding what works and helping it to happen. We are confident she has the ability to bring people together to achieve this.
We are hugely grateful to Isabel Boyer for everything she has done as our Chair over the last eight years, leading our Board and fully supporting our work at every level to end domestic abuse for everyone and for good. We will be taking time separately to say our thankyous and acknowledge the role she has played.
The Rt Hon Dame Maria Miller DBEDomestic abuse remains the day to day reality for too many people, of all ages, in the UK and I hope that in taking up the role of SafeLives’ Chair I can support their unstinting work to eliminate domestic abuse. The team at SafeLives has done so much to identify the most effective ways to address the complexities of domestic abuse. I hope that in my new role I will be able to support this work, drawing from my experience.
I have known SafeLives’ work for a number of years and had the privilege to meet and contribute to the work of SafeLives Changemakers back in 2023 when they looked into the impact of domestic abuse on young people. SafeLives has a formidable team and I am delighted to be able to have the opportunity to work with them.
Isabel Boyer, Chair SafeLivesIt’s been the most enormous privilege to lead this ambitious charity for the last eight years, which has constantly focused on what you would want for your best friend and changing the conversation around domestic abuse from ‘why doesn’t she leave’, to ‘why doesn’t he stop’. I’m delighted to be handing over the reins to someone who clearly shares that passion and wish Maria every success in the role.