Martha Lane Fox

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Martha Lane Fox, Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho, is a British entrepreneur, philanthropist and public servant. Born on 10 February 1973 in London, she co-founded the online travel and gift company Last Minute in 1998 with Brent Hoberman during the dotcom boom. Last Minute grew quickly and was sold to Sabre Holdings in 2005.

From 2009 to 2013, she served as the UK’s Digital Champion, helping to create the government’s digital services and the GOV.UK website, and leading a two-year effort to improve computer literacy. She also helped set up the Digital Public Services Unit in the Cabinet Office and sat on the Efficiency and Reform Board. In 2013 she was honored for her work with a life peerage, becoming The Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho, and she was named the youngest female member of the House of Lords. In 2014 she was appointed Chancellor of the Open University.

Lane Fox has held many board and trustee roles. She joined Chanel as a Non-Executive Director in 2018 and has also served with Donmar Warehouse and The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust. She has been a trustee of charities including Reprieve, CAMFED and Just for Kids Law, and has been a patron of AbilityNet. She was on the board of Twitter from 2016 until its sale in 2022, and joined the board of WeTransfer in 2020. In 2022 she became president of the British Chambers of Commerce, and in 2024 she joined Multiverse, a UK apprenticeships company.

She founded Antigone, a grant-making trust supporting UK charities, in 2007. Lane Fox is a vocal advocate for human rights, women’s rights and social justice. She lives in Marylebone, London with her partner Chris Gorell Barnes, and they have twin sons, Milo and Felix, born in 2016. In 2004 she survived a serious car accident in Morocco and recovered after treatment in the UK.

Honors and recognition include being made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2013 for services to the digital economy and charity, being named the most influential woman in Britain’s digital sector by The Drum in 2019, and being elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2023.