Kate Parminter, Baroness Parminter

Prior to her elevation, Baroness Parminter worked as a freelance consultant advising charities and companies (including Lloyd’s, the City of London Corporation, Mencap & Age Concern) on charity issues, campaigning and corporate social responsibility. From 1998-2004 she was Chief Executive of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, a conservation charity. Between 1990 and 1998 she worked for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, rising from public relations officer to become Head of Public Affairs.[4]

She chaired the Campaign for the Protection of Hunted Animals, which helped to ban hunting, between 1997 and 1998. Before this, she was an account executive at Juliette Hellman PR, a parliamentary researcher for Simon Hughes MP, and a graduate marketing trainee for The Nestlé Co Ltd.[4]

Parminter was a Liberal Democrat councillor on Horsham District Council in West Sussex between 1987 and 1995. In 2008 she was appointed by Nick Clegg to work on the Party's Reform Commission, which was charged with outlining a route map for the Party's future. She was a member of the Party's Federal Executive Committee, which endorsed the proposal to join the coalition government with the Conservatives in May 2010, and the Federal Finance and Administration Committee. She was offered the position three years before accepting but declined the offer as she wanted to look after her children.[5]

Baroness Parminter grew up in West Sussex and was educated at state schools in Horsham. She studied Theology at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford between 1983 and 1986. She lives in Godalming, Surrey with her husband Neil Sherlock and their two school-age daughters.[6] a public affairs partner at KPMG,[7]

Neil Sherlock stood unsuccessfully as a Lib Dem for the seat of South West Surrey in 1992 and 1997. In November 2011, Sherlock became director of government relations (special adviser) in Nick Clegg's deputy prime minister's private office.[8]