14 Facts About Gillian Shephard

Gillian Shephard is currently the chair of the Alumni Association of Oxford University.

Gillian Shephard was the chair of the Council of the Institute of Education until 2015 and deputy commissioner of the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission until 2017.

Gillian Shephard was educated at North Walsham Girls' High School and St Hilda's College, Oxford, where she graduated with an MA in Modern Languages.

Gillian Shephard became a schoolteacher and then worked as an Education Inspector for Norfolk County Council from 1963 to 1975.

Gillian Shephard was elected to Parliament in 1987, and became Parliamentary Private Secretary to Peter Lilley in 1988.

Gillian Shephard was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Department of Social Security in 1989, and then in 1990, Minister of State at HM Treasury.

Gillian Shephard has two stepsons, including econometrician Neil Shephard FBA, Professor of Economics and Statistics at Harvard University.

Gillian Shephard moved to Secretary of State for Education in 1994, and stayed at the department when the Department for Employment merged into it in 1996.

Gillian Shephard remained in this position until the 1997 general election.

Gillian Shephard was one of two women promoted to John Major's Cabinet in 1992; the other was Virginia Bottomley.

Gillian Shephard provided considerable information regarding her role as Secretary of State for Education in interviews conducted by Brian Sherratt in October 1994 and March 1996 for his book on the agenda for educational reform which the Conservative Party had developed since 1979.

Gillian Shephard returned to the backbenches in 1999 and stepped down from the House of Commons at the 2005 general election.

In 2013 following the death of Margaret Thatcher, Gillian Shephard published a memoir, The Real Iron Lady, of her time working with the former prime minister.

Gillian Shephard is currently Chairman of the Association of Conservative Peers.