Barbara Woroncow began her museum career as a curator of ethnographic collections in local authority museum services. She then moved into advisory work and served for 16 years as Chief Executive of the Yorkshire Museums Council, a strategic regional development body funded by DCMS. Barbara is a past elected President of the UK Museums Association and was awarded an OBE in 2000 for services to museums. She subsequently undertook international consultancy and development work for organisations including UNESCO in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus specialising in change management. She has been an independent assessor for public appointments and a board member of Yorkshire’s regional tourism bodies. Barbara is currently a trustee of the Captain Cook Memorial Museum in Whitby and a trustee of the Leeds Culture Trust. She is also a patient representative on the boards of a number of research projects at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust investigating patient use of new technologies in oncology.
Barbara has a degree in Archaeology & Anthropology from Cambridge University and completed a postgraduate course in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester. She currently lives in Leeds.
Barbara Woroncow became a Trustee of the Royal Armouries in January 2022.