Jude Kelly CBE is an acclaimed theatre director and arts impresario, and Founder and CEO of The WOW Foundation which runs WOW - Women of the World Festivals across the globe to celebrate the achievements of women, girls and non-binary people and confront gender injustice. WOW has seeded a global movement which has sparked WOW activity in 45 locations across six continents and reaches 65 million people a year through live and digital events, media and campaigns. WOW Festivals have taken place across the world, in Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, Finland, Greece, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Somaliland, Taiwan, the UK and the USA where seismic shifts in cultural attitudes towards gender equity have taken place as a result of the festival. Participants have included Angela Davis, Malala Yousafzai, Annie Lennox, Patrick Stewart, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Salma Hayek - as well as thousands of people who don’t have public profiles but are changing the world.

Kelly established The WOW Foundation as a charity working to build, convene and sustain a global movement that believes a gender equal world is possible and desirable through festivals and empowering women, girls and non-binary people. The unique festival model creates numerous pathways for participants to take part in WOW projects, amplify their own causes, or start new initiatives which have a wide impact on communities. It is the world’s biggest, most comprehensive and most significant network of festivals dedicated to presenting work by women and promoting equity.

Kelly is among the UK’s most powerful cultural leaders. She is an award-winning creative having won many awards for theatre, opera and music, and a business leader, mentor and a celebrated global champion of equality, with a particular focus on intersectional gender equity. She created the cultural bid for London’s 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, is an inaugural member of Connected Women Leaders, and sits on the Global Advisory Board of Pathfinders Presidents Council and the Advisory Board of Julia Gillard’s Global Institute for Women Leaders. Her TED Talk on ‘Why women should tell the stories of humanity’ has had over 1 million views and she has given numerous keynote talks to business, governments and global leaders, including at UNESCO, COP 22, and at CHOGM. She is the recipient of 21 doctorates and fellowships for services to the arts and women in the UK, USA, Australia, Hong Kong, and China, and is a Knight of Denmark.

The President of The WOW Foundation is Her Majesty The Queen.