Image of Caroline Williams smiling to camera

Doctor of Laws

A ‘parallel entrepreneur’ who specialises in creating successful teams for businesses.

For 20 years, solicitor Caroline Williams was a partner at the firm Blake Lapthorn, specialising in commercial and corporate law. Her last role was as Managing Partner for a business that had grown to over 400 staff, with three locations in the South East and London.

She then became a ‘parallel entrepreneur’, creating teams for a number of companies. These included BC Capital Limited, a company specialising in corporate finance and private equity, and Biocontrol Limited, a developer of new treatments for antibiotic infections, now part of a NASDAQ listed company. She also acts as a business angel and a Non-executive Director.

In 1998, Caroline was appointed by the Government as a founder board member of the South of England Development Agency, a position she held until December 2002. She was Chair of the ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú’s Board of Governors from 1995 to 1999, and a member of the Southeast Regional Council of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) from 1996 to 2003.

Caroline chaired the Hampshire Economic Partnership from 2003 to 2010. She served as a trustee and later Chair of the National Museum of the Royal Navy until 2020, having previously been Chair of the ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú Historic Dockyard. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú in 2002.