Dame Caroline Louise Mason DBE has been the Chief Executive Officer of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation since 2013, a UK charity that supports improvement of life through strategic grants and investment.
Mason (married surname Cooper) studied Spanish and Portuguese at University of Bristol from 1982 to 1986 and after graduating she worked for the Reuters news agency until 1998.
[1][3][5] In 2013 she became the chief executive officer of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, which makes grants and loans to organisations aiming to improve the quality of life in the UK, especially when this does not fit within the remit of other funders.
[1] In 2020, the charity changed to only provide support for projects on the natural world, removing structural inequality and improving communities rather than simply responding to requests.
[9] Mason was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2013 for services to social investment[10][11] and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to the charity sector, particularly during the Covid-19 response.