Lisa Marr served 16 years as a Regular Army Officer with the Royal Logistic Corps.

She served with transport units, training establishments before taking up staff appointments in 1 (UK) Armd Div and UKSC(G). She deployed on operations in Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq. At her pension point she moved to New Zealand and joined up as a Regular Officer in the NZ Defence Force taking a Squadron Commander role with the Logistic Regiment based in Christchurch. It was during this appointment that Christchurch was struck with several catastrophic earthquakes and Lisa was selected to be the Mayor of Christchurch’s Military Liaison officer during the state of emergency.

Returning to the UK Lisa joined 4 Bde as the Head of Engagement for the Yorkshire and Humber region, responsible for engaging with businesses on behalf of service leavers and veterans, publicising the benefits of signing up to the Armed Forces Covenant and the ERS Awards. Being a diverse area a large part of the role was also to engage with hard to reach communities. Lisa excelled at connecting with these communities and became a much loved figure in the region; often developing relationships in areas where the military had found it difficult to connect. She was able to build excellent relationships and through her work in the region was recognised and awarded a commendation from the Consul General of Pakistan.

Lisa has a real passion for helping women and children and breaking down the barriers they often face in these communities. She joined forces with Opening Boundaries a charity which through cricket connects communities and advocates on behalf of women. Lisa devoted a lot of her own time to work with this charity and used the vehicle of cricket to expose these communities to the military, breaking down perceptions on both sides and showcasing the benefits that playing sport brings in both the physical and mental aspects. Through this collaboration she organised a joint event held at Headingly for a cricket match between the UKAF Ladies Team v’s Asian Inspirational Ladies Team. Bringing in the local community this was to showcase women’s sport and the opportunities in the military for people from all backgrounds. The match was a huge success and is now an annual event. The initiative saw Lisa and the Opening Boundaries initiative winning several awards both local and national – White Ribbon Award, British Muslim Awards, Leeds White Ribbon Awards and being selected as one of 3 finalists in the Women’s Sport Trust Game Changer Awards under the Inspiring Local initiative award.

Lisa joined Barclays to run the outward facing VETS programme, by the time of these awards just over a year ago, and has breathed new life into it and set the conditions for it to grow into a huge asset for the business and the veteran community. Her list of achievements in such a short time are remarkable, but to name just a few she has: increased the number of new VETS partners; created connections across the business, raising awareness of VETS and the Military and Veterans Outreach (MVO) team; created – and delivered – from scratch a brilliant, pioneering spousal employment pilot; overseen an exponential increase in numbers of mentors and veterans using the platform and worked tirelessly to ensure collaboration is taking place across this space to ensure the very best service and advice is provided for the service leaver, veteran or spouse wherever they may live in the country.