Nicola Harwin CBE

From her early life as a teenage activist for women’s rights, to her current role as Chief Executive of Women’s Aid, the national charity, Nicola Harwin has been at the forefront of work to end violence against women and children for four decades. Throughout this time, Nicola has worked at every level in the violence against women sector, pioneering and running new local and national specialist services for women and children at risk, drafting and campaigning for life-saving new laws, and helping create vital public awareness and education to prevent abuse in the future. In the last decade Nicola has led the charity in new and exciting campaign partnerships with business leaders, government, media, and local communities.

From 2000 to 2006, Nicola served on the Women’s National Commission, the former government advisory body on women, and was Chair of the Violence Against Women Working Group. Nicola was awarded a CBE in 2001 for her work in building and developing the Women’s Aid national network, which provides 390 local domestic and sexual violence services in England, and helps over a quarter of a million abused women and children every year.