Mrs Geraldine Lejeune OBE DL

Geraldine has lived for most of her life in Berkshire, moving from London aged 5, she was educated in Slough and worked for a major Corporate for most of her working life. Her career was in Human Resources and  she was responsible for community CSR in that role.  This started her passion for working with the most vulnerable in our County and she then moved into the voluntary sector in 2002 as CEO of East Berkshire Women’s Aid.  During her 10 years with the charity she started an outreach service for male survivors of domestic abuse as well as for women and children, securing £1M funding to provide 2 new safe houses from central Government.

Geraldine was awarded an OBE for her work with domestic abuse survivors in the New Year’s Honours list in 2011.

In 2018 Geraldine was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Thames Valley Venus Awards and went on to be given a National Venus Lifetime Achievement Award later in 2018.

In 2022 Geraldine was given a Lifetime of Achievement Award by Thames Valley Business & Community Awards.

2023 Geraldine was nominated for the Great Business & Community National Awards for a Lifetime Achievement.

In 2015 Geraldine moved to the Berkshire Community Foundation (BCF) as CEO and under her leadership there has been a dramatic increase in support from businesses, trusts, foundations and individuals, enabling BCF to give a record breaking £1M in support annually to charities and voluntary groups, who in turn are able to support a significant number of beneficiaries.

Since BCF was formed in 1985 a record £20M has been given out in grants, £10M of which has been granted since 2016.

Geraldine has a husband Ray and they have 4 children and 8 grandchildren which keep her very busy.