Social mobility charity founder Sir Peter Lampl to retire
Joe Lepper
Wednesday, July 3, 2024
Philanthropist Sir Peter Lampl has announced he is to retire as executive chair of the Sutton Trust, the social mobility charity he founded 25 years ago.
Since launching the charity in 1997, Lampl has given £65mn to its work, which includes supporting disadvantaged young people to access education, such as taking up places at universities including Oxford and Cambridge, as well as Harvard and Yale in the US.
Prior to setting up the charity he was the founder of global private equity firm the Sutton Company.
“The Sutton Trust has exceeded my wildest hopes for what it could achieve,” said Lampl.
“It has worked tirelessly to level the playing field of educational opportunity and has revolutionised attitudes to social mobility in the UK.”
Lampl says that he will continue to “advocate for social mobility from an independent position” adding “I am, and always will be, immensely proud of what the Trust has achieved”.
The charity added that Lampl has “radically altered the way that policy makers think about social mobility”.
During Sir Peter’s tenure, the Trust has championed policies to support young people from low and middle income backgrounds and radically altered the way that policy makers think about social mobility.
— The Sutton Trust (@suttontrust) July 2, 2024
Sir Peter also founded the @EducEndowFoundn 👇https://t.co/cJ3jpqC8dK
Lampl also founded the Education Endowment Foundation in 2011 and was its chair until earlier this year when he stepped down and was replaced by former Ofsted chief inspector Dame Christine Gilbert.
He was awarded an OBE 25 years ago for services to higher education and was knighted in 2003.
The two charities he founded have raised almost £1bn between them.
The Sutton Trust’s work has also included commissioning 250 research studies.
Last month it published a report calling on the next government to launch a national strategy for children’s centres and family hubs to improve social mobility. It also called for equal access to funded early education.
Meanwhile, earlier this year the charity published research that found that more than 150 comprehensive schools are “more socially selective” than the average grammar school in their admissions.
