Deafness Research UK Chairman awarded OBE
20 June 2008
We are delighted to announce that our Chairman, David Livermore, has been awarded an OBE for Services to People with Hearing Difficulties in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2008.
David has been Chairman of Deafness Research UK since 2003, His passionate interest in deafness developed from having a deaf daughter, now grown up, and he has been a long-standing governor of the Mary Hare School for the Deaf. From 1995 to 2002 he was Chairman of the Royal National Institute for Deaf People.
Deafness Research UK Chief Executive, Vivienne Michael, said, “Naturally, David’s personal experience of deafness gives him a real understanding of the stigma that surrounds deafness and a valuable insight into the enormous challenges that deaf people face in a hearing world. This, combined with his great energy, determination and personal charm, makes him a formidable and effective advocate of the work of Deafness Research UK.”
David brings to his voluntary activities a wide range of business, IT and NHS experience.
He joined IBM in 1961 directly from Cambridge University and followed a career in sales and marketing, becoming Sales Director and then Director of Corporate Staff.
In 1992, when IBM formed The Computability Centre with the British Computer Society and the University of Birmingham, he was elected as Chairman of the new charity and when TCC merged with the Foundation for Communication for Disabled People (FCD), he became Chairman of the new organisation, AbilityNet.
On leaving IBM he was Group Managing Director of RAC Motoring Services, a non executive Director of Triplex Lloyd and Doncasters and more recently has chaired the Winchester NHS Healthcare Trust.
David is also Chairman of the Newbury Spring Festival, which is jointly recognised in his honour. He is a trustee of the Naomi Trust (a hospice for terminally ill children) and the INTECH Science Centre in Winchester.
