Mary Perkins

Education

She attended Fairfield Grammar School in Bristol.

Career

She then went to Cardiff University to train as an optometrist. At Cardiff, she met Doug Perkins, whom she would later marry. The couple established their first business in Bristol in the 1960s.

This was a chain of opticians around Bristol, which they sold for £2 million in 1980, and continue to receive income from.

After the sale the couple moved to Guernsey, where Mary"s father had retired. Mary and Doug Perkins established in Guernsey in 1984.

In 2007 it was the largest privately owned opticians in the world, with nearly 900 stores across the United Kingdom and Europe. By 2011 the company had an annual turnover of £1.5bn and over 30,000 staff in markets in the United Kingdom, Europe and Australasia.

Dame Mary sits on the company board, oversees business development and has particular responsibility for running Puerto Rico. She has admitted donning disguises and visiting stores, posing as a customer.

Achievements

• Perkins was made an honorary fellow of Cardiff University in 2005. The same year she received the Rotary International Community and Vocational Service Award for her services to charity and in 2006 won the inaugural Spirit of everywoman Award. Perkins was the first female optician in the United Kingdom to receive the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 2007. The accolade was also in recognition of her other charitable work, including the Guernsey annual "Liberation Tea Dance for 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 British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4. In July 2015 she was made an Officer Sister of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem.