May will be keynote speaker at the charity’s 196th annual luncheon, held on 13 November 2025. Now a member of the House of Lords, as an MP she held her seat in Maidenhead for 27 years, standing down in 2024.
Prime minister from 2016-19, she was only the second woman to hold the office. She has been a supporter of the mentoring and promotion of women’s involvement in the Conservative party, co-founding pressure group Women2Win in 2005.
May said: “Print plays a vitally important part in ensuring that as many people as possible can have access to information they need to know.
“While the ways in which we receive information has proliferated over the years, I know through a long career in politics – and the many thousands of campaign leaflets I have delivered – the vital role that print plays, and will continue to play, in terms of getting a message across. I am therefore delighted to be the Printing Charity’s 2025 president.”
Printing Charity CEO Neil Lovell told Printweek he was delighted to welcome May as the charity's figurehead.
He said: "Throughout the charity’s near 200-year history, we have been pleased to welcome, as our honorary president, many key figures from across a broad spectrum of politics, business and the arts. We are delighted to have Baroness May join our illustrious rollcall of presidents, not only as a former prime minster and politician with integrity, but also one who is dedicated to public service.
“Our aim as the charity for our sector is to support the many thousands of people who work or have worked in it, and to evolve our services as their needs change.
"The profile and stature of our honorary presidents bring additional focus to this aim and the work we do. Beyond that, the main aspect to the honorary role is as our keynote speaker at our Annual Luncheon when they show their support for the work we do and sector we support. I’m very much looking forward to hearing Baroness May’s remarks.”
May will be the third former prime minister to take up the post. Lord John Russell, the charity's first president, even served as prime minister twice for the Liberal party, from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.
