Congratulations to Dr Anna Keay OBE

Congratulations to Dr Anna Keay OBE, who has been appointed to the board of Historic England Commission by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Chaired by Lord Mendoza CBE, it is the governing board of the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, and has overall responsibility for the National Heritage Collection.

Dr Keay is a historian is a specialist in historic buildings with extensive experience across the heritage and cultural sectors. She is Director of the Landmark Trust, where she has led work to rescue and restore historic buildings at risk and oversees an estate of more than 200 historic properties. Dr Keay previously served as Curatorial Director of English Heritage from 2002 to 2012, having earlier worked as a curator at Historic Royal Palaces.

In March 2022, she gave a lecture at Gresham College. Life In A Revolutionary Decade in Britain (1649-1660) explored the 11 years when the country was a republic. In it, she argued that this period forged the British Isles and created the conditions for the commercial and colonial prosperity of the centuries that followed.

Dr Keay's four-year tenure with Heritage England starts on Thursday, 1 October. Her fellow appointees are Charles Donald, Dominic Field, Georgina Lynch, Claire McColgan, Lukman Patel, and Moira Sinclair.