Lord Chris Holmes

Chris is Britain’s most successful Paralympic swimmer with a tally of 9 golds, 5 silvers and 1 bronze. He was also LOCOG’s Director of Paralympic Integration, responsible for the organisation of the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. Chris joined the House of Lords as Lord Holmes of Richmond in 2013, focusing his time on education, employment and skills, media and sport, and digital opportunity. He has been a member of Select Committees on Digital Skills, Social Mobility and Financial Exclusion. Chris is also Diversity Adviser to the Civil Service, Deputy Chair at Channel 4 and Advisor on Diversity & Inclusion to BPP University. 

Following his retirement from competitive swimming, Chris worked as a journalist before qualifying as a commercial lawyer specialising in employment and pensions. He also took Non-Executive Director roles at the Disability Rights Commission and UK Sport and was an Ambassador for the successful London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic bid. In 2009 Chris was appointed Director of Paralympic Integration for London 2012. In this role, Chris drew on political skills, strategic know-how and his incredible determination to deliver the most successful Paralympics ever. The first games to have all sponsors signed to both Olympics and Paralympics was the London 2012 Olympic Games , the first games to sell out all the stadia for every session and, incredibly, the first games to achieve worldwide television audiences in the hundreds of millions.

The Prime Minister invited Chris to Parliament in 2013. Chris relishes this political role and is an active member of the House of Lords closely involved with a raft of important recent legislation, partiduclarly focused on financial services, inclusion and the technological opporunity. He published a well-received report on blockchain in 2017 - DLT for Public Good and is currently campaigning for an access to digital payments review. His experiences navigating the ancient corridors of power with guide dog Nancy offer numerous entertaining anecdotes.

Previously, Chris was a Non-Executive Director at at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (2013-2017) where he headed up the Disability Committee and was responsible for important diversity and inclusion programmes. His responsibilities ranged from sport to broadcasting and precedent-setting legal action concerned with the Equality Act 2010 and establishing principles around accessibility and inclusion. 

In February 2023 we sat down virtually with Lord Chris Holmes and discussed what it takes to be a successful Paralympian. Watch our Exclusive Interview with Lord Chris Holmes.