The former civil servant grew Hays Travel with her late husband John after he launched the business in his mum’s shop
The Sunday Times revealed its Rich List for 2024, with Dame Irene featuring in it for the first time alongside the likes of King Charles III, Sir Richard Branson and the Beckhams.
Dame Irene joins businessman Euan Blair and F1 driver Lewis Hamilton on the list the first time.
Dame Irene’s £400m fortune placed her 324th alongside Liverpool-based businessman Andy Bell, who set up the £76 billion funds group AJ Bell in 1995, Trailfinders owner Sir Michael Gooley and construction moguls Dai and Richard Walters.
Despite being one of travel’s best-known faces, Dame Irene spent her early career in government, rising through the ranks to become chief executive of South Tyneside and Sunderland councils.
She also held positions in the national government – becoming first director general and then acting permanent secretary at the Department for Communities and Local Government (now known as Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities).
In 2011, she became chair of Hays Travel, the company founded by her husband John in 1980 at the back of his mum’s shop.
