Sue Wilkinson OBE reappointed as a Trustee of Historic Royal Palaces

Sue Wilkinson OBE has been reappointed by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as a Trustee of Historic Royal Palaces for three years from 1 August 2020 to 31 July 2023. Historic Royal Palaces is an independent charity that manages some of the United Kingdom's unoccupied royal palaces including the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace (State Apartments and Orangery), The Banqueting House, Whitehall, Kew Palace with Queen Charlotte's Cottage and Hillsborough Castle.

Historic Royal Palaces was originally set up in 1989 as an executive agency of the Department of the Environment. In 1998 it became an independent charity, which is contracted by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to manage the palaces on behalf of the Queen. It receives no funding from the Government or the Crown, depending on the support of visitors, members, donors, volunteers and sponsors. 4.25 million people visited the palaces in the 2014–15 financial year.

About Sue Wilkinson OBE

Sue has held a number of prominent roles within the arts and education. She was Chief Executive of the Reading Agency from January 2014 to July 2019. Prior to this she was Director of UK Academic and Government Alliances at Elsevier.

Sue read history at Clare College Cambridge, trained as a teacher and did a postgraduate course in museum education at the University of Leicester. As Director of Policy at the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) she created the ground-breaking quality and impact framework, Inspiring Learning for All, which is now used in museums, archives and libraries all over the world.

While at MLA she worked with public libraries and their partners to deliver a wide range of programmes, and with local museums to establish, and secure funding for the Renaissance in the Regions programme.

She was awarded an MBE for services to museum education in 2014 and an OBE for services to literature and libraries in 2020. Sue is also a trustee of the Royal Pavilion and Museums Brighton and was previously a Trustee of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Handel House Museum.