Martha Lane Fox

Biography

Martha Lane-Fox co-founded and led lastminute.com, the revolutionary online travel shopping site. She is the President of the British Chambers of Commerce and is working to represent the interests of Chamber business communities and trade in a crucial period for the UK. 

Martha is chair of WeTransfer, and chair and co-founder of Lucky Voice, a national chain of up-market, private karaoke clubs. She is also the founder and executive chair of Doteveryone.org.uk, an organisation that lobbies for responsible, fairer technologies. She previously served as a non-executive Director of Twitter.

In lastminute’s early days, Martha helped define the business as one of the leading online brands. She led the innovative launch strategy and raised the company’s public profile, making an immediate impact on the internet and e-commerce arena. She met co-founder Brent Hoberman at Spectrum Strategy Consultants, a specialist media, and telecoms consultancy.

Realising the potential for a site like lastminute.com, Martha and Brent raised start-up capital, attracting investors and forging business relationships. Bain & Company and Management Today voted it the top website out of more than 300 startups in the search for the most exciting entrepreneurial ventures in cyberspace.

Martha was appointed the UK’s Digital Champion by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, with a remit to bring every UK citizen online and help them develop vital digital skills. She also helped to transform the government’s online presence through the introduction of the gov.uk portals, which for the first time prioritised the user’s experience and made governmental information publicly available. She is also a member of the Joint Committee on National Security Strategy working with military and civil servants on cybersecurity policy.

An active crossbench peer, Martha is also a patron of Reprieve and founded Antigone to provide grants to UK charities. She is a Chancellor of the Open University, and still serves on the board of lastminute.com, as well as of Marks & Spencer and Channel 4.