Outgoing chair of Hay Festival Global Caroline Michel has been awarded a special Hay Festival Medal for Leadership to celebrate her decade of impact 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 Eric Vuillard; poets Benjamin Zephaniah, Lemn Sissay, and Gillian Clarke; and actors Judi Dench and David Harewood.
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 said:
“Caroline Michel has served as the Chair of Hay Festival with remarkable dedication and vision. She has significantly 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.”
Caroline 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. 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.”
Hay Festival is one of the world’s leading cultural charities. Founded in Hay-on-Wye, Wales in 1987, it provides audiences with dynamic platforms to come together to share ideas, different perspectives and to provoke conversations that can create a better world.
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. Before joining Apple, she was Chief Creative Officer of Channel 4, responsible for Channel 4, E4, More 4 and the Film 4 channel. She is the only person to have run three terrestrial broadcast channels, also serving as Controller of BBC One and Director of Programmes at Channel 5. In 2023, she was named one of the Top Twenty Most Powerful Women in Global Entertainment by The Hollywood Reporter.
Hunt will lead a Board comprised of nine Trustees including farmer, ceramicist and film producer Corisande Albert; international lawyer Victoria Bejarano; economist Nick Butler; Professor Dame Elan Closs Stephens; arts leader and digital specialist Tony Followell; tech investor Suhair Khan; historian, writer and broadcaster David Olusoga; business leader Ed Shedd; and digital content specialist Shakia Stewart.
Meanwhile, Michel will move to the Festival’s advisory council alongside other outgoing Trustees: journalist Baroness Rosie Boycott; business leader Geraint Davies; and lawyer Philippe Sands KC.
Stephen Fry continues his role as Hay Festival Global President.
Hay Festival Global’s 2025 activity will include events in Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Nairobi, Ukraine, the US and the UK; year-round pop-up events and platforms including the free monthly Book Club and After Hours events in cities; plus learning and engagement work offering free access to Festival inspiration for young people around the world.
Hay Festival Hay-on-Wye 2025 will take place in Wales, Thursday 22 May–Sunday 1 June, with a selection of earlybird events out now.
