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22 December 1994

To:  All Directors of Centres, HFEA Inspectors

Dear Colleague

Chairman of the HFEA

This is to inform you that the new Chairman to the HFEA is Mrs Ruth Deech, Principal, St Anne's College, Oxford (see attached biographical note). Mrs Deech took over from Sir Colin Campbell on 16 December.

Yours faithfully

Flora Goldhill
Chief Executive

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MRS RUTH DEECH:
A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Ruth Deech was born in London in 1943. She was educated at Christ's Hospital and St Anne's College, Oxford, where she graduated with a First in Law in 1965, followed by an MA from Brandeis University in the USA. She was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1967.

She acquired her interest in family law while doing research into divorce law, matrimonial property, and illegitimacy for the Law Commission in London in 1966-67. After teaching law in Canada, she became Fellow and Tutor in Law at St Anne's College from 1970 until she was elected Principal of the College in 1991. She has published in the fields of family law and property law.

Married to a solicitor, she has a student daughter and is active in matters concerning women, divorce, higher education, careers, childcare and student welfare. Ruth Deech initiated Oxford University's Equal Opportunity Committee and has been a member of various university committees concerned with student health, childcare and freedom of speech.

She has been active in university administration in Oxford, first as Senior Proctor (1985-86) and then as an elected member of the University Hebdomadal Council from 1986 onwards. She is Chairman of the Joint Undergraduate Admissions Committee. She raised funds for the University's first two creches in her role as chairman of the Welfare Fundraising Taskforce. She was a Director of Oxfordshire Health Authority 1993-94 and was a member of the Committee of Inquiry into Equal Opportunities on the Bar Vocational Course 1993-94. She is a Trustee of Jewish Continuity and a Governor of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies.

Her outside interests include classical music and entertaining.

Page last updated: 24 August 2012

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