Polly Neate CBE LLD(hc) is a high profile and inspirational leader and communicator. She is a coach, mentor and strategic advisor, with particular expertise on leadership, civil society and social policy, focusing on social justice, including housing and homelessness, women’s rights, children and families.
Throughout Polly’s career she has influenced governments at the highest level and led impactful campaigns for policy change and social justice, sometimes in the face of hate and hostility. She was Chief Executive of Shelter from 2017 to 2025, where she laid the foundations of the Renters Reform Act, campaigned to raise standards in social housing in alongside Grenfell United, and brought the housing sector together to push for investment in building social homes. She was previously Chief Executive of Women’s Aid, where she dramatically raised the public and political profile of domestic abuse, including successfully campaigning for coercive and controlling abuse to be made a crime and for improvements in the family courts’ treatment of domestic abuse survivors.
The 10-year strategy Polly launched at Shelter has remained relevant and on track despite the major events that occurred during her time as CEO, including the Covid-19 pandemic, the transition to post-pandemic ways of working and the cost of living crisis. As a leader, Polly has consistently championed anti-racism and all forms of equity, as well as achieving transformational change in organisational strategy and culture.
Polly is a journalist by profession and won national awards for both journalism and campaigning, before moving into the not-for-profit sector. She is a trustee of Women in Sport and the Young Women’s Trust, a non-executive director of Wessex Local Medical Committees and a member of Bayes Business School Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council. She is part of the Founding Group of A Better Way Network and of the Charity Reform Group.
Polly was awarded a CBE in the 2022 New Year Honours list, was awarded Honorary Doctor of Laws by Bristol University in October 2022 and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in the same year.
Photo credit: Honor Elliott