Julia Middleton

Julia is passionate about helping people from all backgrounds to develop as leaders and make an active and tangible contribution to their communities and to wider society.In the autumn of 1989, Julia founded Common Purpose, which has grown to be one of the biggest leadership development organizations in the world. Julia stepped down from the position of Chief Executive in 2019. As Founder Julia works in a nonexecutive capacity on some key Common Purpose initiatives. In April 2020 she launched Women Emerging from Isolation which she now leads. Julia is also a member of the Advisory Groups of both Common Purpose in Pakistan and the Sky Blue founders Group and is a Patron for Common Purpose of the Europe101 initiative.
She is on the board and chairs the investment committee of Alfanar (delivering Venture Philanthropy in the Arab World), is on the International Advisory Council for Fundacao Dom Cabral (a business school in Brasil), is a Senior Fellow of Babson College, is a trustee of The Wren Project (supporting people with autoimmune conditions) and is a Goodwill Ambassador of the Aurora Forum (a global humanitarian initiative run out of Armenia).
Julia was born in London and educated at French Lycées around the world. She worked for the Industrial Society after receiving an economics degree from the London School of Economics. She is married, and has five children, one daughter in law, one son in law and one granddaughter.