Patience Jane Wheatcroft, Baroness Wheatcroft (born 28 September 1951) is a British journalist and life peeress, who was editor-in-chief of '' The Wall Street Journal Europe.'' She left this role upon becoming a peer. She previously served as editor of ''

The Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, first published on 5 February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Tele ...

'' newspaper. She resigned from this post in September 2007 after eighteen months in the job and temporarily moved out of journalism.

Career

Wheatcroft was educated at Wolverhampton Girls' High School and

Birmingham University The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

(LLB, Law, 1972). She and her husband, Tony Salter, launched the specialist trade magazine '' Retail Week'' in 1988 and Wheatcroft served as its consultant editor until 1992. She has worked on several national newspapers, including the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

'', ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' and ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

''. After serving as Deputy City Editor of ''

The Mail on Sunday ''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. Founded in 1982 by Lord Rothermere, it is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK. Its sister paper, the ''Daily Mail'', was first published i ...

'', she was appointed Business and City Editor of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' in 1997 and then as editor of ''

'' in March 2006. Wheatcroft won the Wincott Senior Journalist of the Year Award in 2001 and in 2003 was London Press Club Business Journalist of the Year. She resigned as editor of ''The Sunday Telegraph'' on 4 September 2007, being replaced by

Ian MacGregor Ian Macgregor (born c. 1937) is a British investment executive and chartered accountant. He is the former chief investment officer of The Wellcome Trust, oversaw growth of nearly £1bn per annum over fifteen years. The Wellcome Trust was the t ...

, who until then had been deputy editor of ''The Daily Telegraph''. Reports stated that Wheatcroft was under pressure to integrate the Sunday paper's reporters with the daily newspaper's 24/7 operation.

Appointments

From 1 January 2008 until 2009, Wheatcroft served as a non-executive director of Barclays plc. From 27 February 2008 until 2009, she served as a non-executive director of Shaftesbury plc, a British property investment company with assets in central London. On 8 May 2008, she was appointed head of the newly created Forensic Audit Panel by the incoming

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The current ...

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...

. The panel is tasked with monitoring and investigating financial management at the

London Development Agency The London Development Agency (LDA) was from July 2000 until 2012 the regional development agency for the Greater London, London region in England. A functional body of the Greater London Authority, its purpose was to drive sustainable economic ...

and the

Greater London Authority The Greater London Authority (GLA), colloquially known by the Metonymy, metonym City Hall, is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved Regions of England, regional governance body of Greater London, England. It consists of two political ...

. On 30 July 2010, Prime Minister

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

appointed Wheatcroft to the board of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

. On 22 December 2010, Wheatcroft was created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

as Baroness Wheatcroft, ''of Blackheath in the London Borough of Greenwich''. She sat in the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

as a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

peer, having been a long-standing supporter of the party, until November 2019, but now sits as an unaffiliated peer. On 4 April 2012, she became a non-executive board member of Fiat S.p.A. From 12 October 2014 until

Stellantis Stellantis N.V. is a multinational automaker formed in 2021 through the Mergers and acquisitions, merger of the Italian–American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the French PSA Group, PSA (Peugeot S.A.) Group. The company's hea ...

-group's creation on 16 January 2021, she was a non-executive board member of

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA), now part of Stellantis, was an Italian-American multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of Car, automobiles, commercial vehicles, List of auto parts, auto parts and production systems. ...

. In early 2023, she ran to be Chairlady of the European Movement, losing to Mike Galsworthy.

Personal life

Wheatcroft is married with three children. Her publisher husband Tony was a Conservative Party campaigner working in the London boroughs of Greenwich and

Lewisham Lewisham ( ) is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in ...

Arms

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wheatcroft, Patience 1951 births British journalists British newspaper editors Conservative Party (UK) life peers Living people Trustees of the British Museum Alumni of the University of Birmingham Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II Life peers created by Elizabeth II