Mary Perkins an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year UK Lifetime Achievement Award for her continued contribution to entrepreneurship and the economy. Perkins is a founding patron of the not-for-profit social enterprise, Modern Muse. Mary Perkins Dame Mary Lesley Perkins, (born 14 February 1944) is co-founder of Specsavers, the British retail opticians chain. Together with her husband, co-founder and chairman Doug Perkins, Dame Mary has three children, all of whom work for Specsavers, and are eventually expected to take over the privately owned company. She attended Fairfield Grammar School in Bristol. She then went to Cardiff University to train as an optometrist. At
Lesley Cowley Lesley Cowley Lesley Ruth Cowley OBE is a British businesswoman, chairwoman and non-executive director. She is best known as the former CEO of .uk domain name registry Nominet UK, and is the current chair of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and Companies House, and Non-Executive Director of telecoms operator aql. In 1990, Cowley joined New College, Swindon, where she became Director of Corporate Services. Cowley joined Nominet as Operations Director in 1999 before being made Managing Director in 2002 and CEO in 2004, serving in that position for 10 years. She led the organisation through a period of