Julia Middleton is passionate about helping people from all backgrounds to develop as leaders and make an active and tangible contribution to their communities and to wider society.

Julia is the author of two bestselling books: Beyond Authority: Leadership in a Changing World and Cultural Intelligence: The Competitive Edge for Leaders Crossing Boundaries.

In the autumn of 1989, Julia founded Common Purpose, which has grown to be one of the biggest leadership development organizations in the world. Julia stepped down from the position of Chief Executive in 2019.

In 2015, Julia gave a very well-received talk at TEDxEastEnd on Cultural Intelligence: The Competitive Edge for Leaders.

In April 2020 she launched Women Emerging from Isolation which she now leads. Julia is also a member of the Advisory Group of Common Purpose in Pakistan and is a Patron for Common Purpose of the Europe101 initiative.

She is on the board and chairs the investment committee of Alfanar (delivering Venture Philanthropy in the Arab World), is on the International Advisory Council for Fundação Dom Cabral, business school in Brasil, is a Senior Fellow of Babson College, is a trustee of The Wren Project and is a Goodwill Ambassador of the Aurora Forum.

Julia was born in London and educated at French Lycées around the world. She worked for the Industrial Society after receiving an economics degree from the London School of Economics.

Social Links

Twitter: @JuliaMiddleton

LinkedIn: @juliamiddleton