Christian Aid is delighted to announce the appointment of Anne Owers as its new chair.
Ms Owers succeeds Bishop John Gladwin, the Bishop of Chelmsford, who is standing down after ten years as Chair of Christian Aid.
'I am delighted to have been asked to succeed Bishop John Gladwin, though he will be a hard act to follow,' said Ms Owers.
'I very much admire Christian Aid’s combination of practical help and powerful advocacy, and look forward to working with the Board, the staff and the member churches to tackle poverty and its causes.'
Ms Owers is currently HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, a post she took up in 2001.
A committed human rights campaigner, she received a CBE in 2000 in recognition for her work in a range of voluntary and public posts.
While director of law reform group Justice between 1992 and 2001, perhaps Ms Owers' greatest achievement was to help secure the setting up of the Criminal Cases Review Commission to investigate possible miscarriages of justice.
Between 1986 and 1992 she was general secretary of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.
During that period she was also a member of the race and community relations committee of the Church of England.
Ms Owers' commitment to issues of diversity goes back to the 1970s, when she became a member of the race relations commission of the diocese of Southwark.
Ms Owers was educated at Washington Grammar School in County Durham before going on to study history at Girton College, Cambridge. After graduation, she spent three years teaching in Zambia and conducting PhD research into African history.