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
Mary Perkins pensioners", and her directorship of Women's Refuge and Age Concern. She was awarded the Spirit of Everywoman Award in 2006. She is also a patron to leading children's charity Kidscape In 2012 Dame Mary Perkins was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Business from Plymouth University In February 2013 she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4. In July 2015 she was made an Officer Sister of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem. In October 2017, Dame Mary was honoured with