Outgoing chair of Hay Festival Global Caroline Michel has been awarded a special Hay Festival Medal for Leadership to celebrate her decade of achievement at the charity.
Awarded annually since the UK’s Olympic year (2012), and crafted locally by silversmith Christopher Hamilton, Hay Festival Medals draw inspiration from the original Olympic medal given for poetry, celebrating world-changing storytellers.
Hay Festival Medals traditionally honour work in poetry, music, drama, broadcasting and non-fiction. Recipients over the years have included writers Hilary Mantel, Ali Smith, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and Benjamin Zephaniah, among others.
Michel’s Medal for Leadership was presented by Hay Festival Global president Stephen Fry at a special commemoration event in London attended by the team.
Julie Finch, chief executive of Hay Festival, said: “Caroline Michel has served as the chair of Hay Festival with remarkable dedication and vision. She has enriched our charity and community, and we are grateful for her contributions.
“This Hay Festival Medal celebrates and commemorates Caroline’s outstanding leadership of the board, a lasting tribute to her commitment and the impact she has made during her time as chair.”
Michel said: “This Hay Festival Medal is a wonderful honour. For more than 30 years, Hay Festival has been a thread of light through my mind, heart and soul. It is the place I have gone to listen, learn, laugh, cry and be amazed and wonder at the world.”
She added: “It affirms, challenges, debates all the issues of the day – something we need now more than ever – while offering that rare opportunity to discover new writers, ideas, comedy and music. I am thrilled that Jay Hunt will succeed me as chair – someone I admire enormously – and look forward to supporting her work in my role on the advisory council.”
In January 2025, Jay Hunt OBE will take over as chair of Hay Festival Global for a term of three years. She is the creative director for Apple TV+ in Europe and chair of the BFI and has served on the Board of the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund.
Hunt will lead a board comprised of nine trustees and Stephen Fry will continue his role as Hay Festival Global President. Michel will move to the Festival’s advisory council alongside other outgoing trustees.
