Dianne Thompson

Dianne Thompson "is chief executive of Camelot Group plc, operator of the UK National Lottery.

"Dianne joined Camelot in 1997 as commercial operations director and took over as chief executive in December 2000 when Camelot was awarded the second licence to operate the National Lottery. ...

"Outside of Camelot, Dianne personally raised funds for ChildLine as Chair of the ChildLine Foundation – and reached the landmark figure of £1 million in December 2006.

"In a career spanning over 30 years, Dianne has worked in marketing for a variety of companies such as ICI Paints (1974-1979), Sterling Roncraft (1986-1988) and Signet Group (1994-1997). She was Director of Marketing at Woolworths (1992-1994), a lecturer at Manchester Polytechnic for seven years (1979-1986) – during which time she founded and ran her own advertising agency – and was managing director of Sandvik Saws and Tools (1988-1992). Dianne received a BA (Hons) in French from London University and started her career as a marketing trainee at the Co-operative Wholesale Society.

"She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, the Marketing Society, and the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Dianne is also a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute and a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Marketors. Dianne has previously been awarded the titles of both Veuve Clicquot business woman of the year 2000 and marketer of the year by the Marketing Society in 2001.

"Dianne has recently been appointed as non-executive Chairman of Radio Centre, the industry body for commercial radio and is also a trustee of the Born Free Foundation.

"In the 2006 New Year’s Honours Dianne received a CBE for services to business. She consistently features in the top 10 of Marketing magazine’s Power 100 list of the UK marketing community’s most influential players. In September 2006 she was awarded the Chartered Management Institute’s Gold Medal for her strategic direction and leadership.

"Dianne is an executive committee Member of the European Lotteries Association (EL), World Lotteries Association (WLA), and in addition she chairs the EL’s Responsible Gaming Committee, and the WLA’s Corporate Social Responsibility and New Media/Cross Border Committees. Dianne also chairs Camelot’s Responsibility Board.""