Iryna Terlecky

Iryna is an ex civil servant who worked in the Departments of the Environment and Transport. After leaving the Civil Service,  she held Director level roles in the Office of Rail Regulation, and the Strategic Rail Authority, becoming Executive Director and Board Member accountable for a £10bn rail subsidy budget, before managing the transfer of functions back to the Department of Transport. She became an independent consultant and has worked on various strategic rail, rolling stock and organisational change projects with private sector companies and governments and has several times appeared before Parliamentary Select Committees.

Iryna has devoted much of her time to volunteering within the Ukrainian community. She was a volunteer teacher at the Ukrainian supplementary school in London for 25 years, ran leadership and other summer programmes for the Ukrainian Youth Association and, as a member of the Ukrainian Women’s Association, has organised charitable and humanitarian aid to Ukraine since 1991 – to those suffering from the Chornobyl disaster and now, those suffering from the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

She is currently Chair of the Ukrainian Women’s Association and a Board member of the Association of Ukrainians, the largest representative body for Ukrainians and those of Ukrainian heritage in Great Britain. In those capacities, since February 2022, she has frequently been interviewed in the media (including on Women’s Hour) and was invited as a speaker on the Moral Maze. She was instrumental in establishing a Ukrainian Welcome Centre in London to provide help to displaced Ukrainians, and has been closely involved with government in the development of policies towards Ukrainian refugees, for which she was awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List in 2023.