Our Chief Executive
Leslie Morphy OBE
Leslie Morphy has been our Chief Executive since November 2006. Her career before coming to Crisis was largely in the not-for-profit sector, with a strong emphasis on social exclusion and expertise in learning and skills development.
She was a Director at The Prince's Trust for nearly 10 years, latterly as UK Director of Programmes and Policy delivering programmes to 40,000 young people a year. During her time there the reach of the Trust to young people through its programmes doubled.
Before working at The Prince's Trust, Leslie was Head of Research and Development at the Basic Skills Agency, whose work formed the bedrock of government policy on literacy and numeracy. She previously ran a social enterprise, Broadcasting Support Services, which connected televison and radio audiences to information and services.
Ambitious plans
Since being at Crisis Leslie has led the development of a new five year strategic plan which will set up learning and activity centres in cities round the UK. One new centre has already opened in Newcastle and we will be operating in Birmingham from July 2010 and Oxford from June 2011. At the same time the scope of Crisis services will increase so that we can put more effort into addressing people's mental health needs as well as providing better support into employment.
Leslie received her OBE in the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to homeless people.
She has degrees from the London School of Economics and Birkbeck College, London University. She is a trustee of Bliss, the special care baby charity.
Leslie is married and has a son and daughter who are the apples of her eyes.
