Jonathan Shephard was appointed CEO of Autism West Midlands in 2010. In the past four years the charity has developed new family, advice, employment and education services, supporting thousands of people across the region. Autism West Midlands has developed the UK’s first free social network for autistic people and their families, Connect to Autism; and has published a series of well-regarded books, including “The Good and Bad Science of Autism” and “ Ultraviolet Voices: Stories of Women on the Autism Spectrum”. Jonathan is also a Trustee of the Autism Alliance UK and of SPARC – a specialist regional diagnostic and assessment service for the West Midlands.
Jonathan read English and then law at Oxford University, winning two university prizes and the New Statesman Student Journalist Competition. After being called to the bar he worked for Which? (Consumers’ Association) in charge of financial research. He has been MD of business and consumer magazine publishing companies, and in 2004 became CEO of the Independent Schools Council (ISC), where he brokered the settlement with the Office of Fair Trading on exchange of commercial information, and persuaded Government Ministers to leave unchanged the definition of public benefit in the Charities Act 2006. Between ISC and Autism West Midlands, he was CEO of the trade body for the UK magazine publishing industry.
