Archie Norman, City stalwart, turnaround master and current chair at Marks and Spencer, has been hailed with the Lifetime Achievement award at this year’s NED Awards.

Norman’s CV as chair includes ITV, Asda, Lazard, Hobbycraft and most recently Signal AI.

The award for FTSE 100 chair went to George Culmer of Aviva while the Dame Helen Alexander NED to Watch prize went to Alys Carlton of the Football Association of Wales.

Culmer joined Aviva as a non-executive in September 2019 and, in less than a year, became chair. During Culmer’s time leading the board, Aviva has completed the acquisition of its smaller rival, Direct Line, while market capitalisation has doubled to £19bn.

Alys Carlton trained as a lawyer and was a partner at Capital Law in Cardiff. She has been vice chair of the Welsh government’s expert panel on supporting entrepreneurial women and served as a trustee of the Aloud charity, supporting the use of choral singing to promote life skills among young people.

She joined the Football Association of Wales in 2023 and is also a non-executive director of sports company UKEL, and the marketing agency Orchard Media.

The awards, organised by Peel Hunt, were made at an event in Claridges in London.

The full list of winners:

Public sector/not for profit
Karen Frank, British Heart Foundation

Private/private equity backed
Nicholas Thain, Amerge

FTSE AIM
Ilse Howling, Frontier Developments

Dame Helen Alexander ‘NED to Watch’
Alys Carlton, Football Association of Wales

FTSE All Share
Leslie Van de Walle, Greencore

FTSE 100 NED
Tanuj Kapilashrami, Sainsbury’s

FTSE 100 chair
George Culmer, Aviva

Lifetime Achievement
Archie Norman

For more details, visit the NED Awards 2026 website.