Lady Catherine Ashton
Doctor of the University (HonDUniv)
Year conferred: 2011
Lady Catherine Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, is Vice President of the European Commission and has been the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy since the post was created in 2009.
She was made a life peer in 1999 by the Labour government and held ministerial appointments. She became a Privy Councillor in May 2006.
As Leader of the House of Lords she was instrumental in steering the Treaty of Lisbon through the Upper House. She was the first woman in her family to attend university, having attended Wigan Mining and Technical College before graduating from Bedford College, London.
