Jeannie Drake was appointed to the House of Lords in 2010. She is a former trade union leader and an expert in the pensions industry. Drake is a trustee of both the O2 and Alliance and Leicester pension funds and is an Employment Appeal Tribunal member. In addition to this, she is a member of the Labour Party National Policy Forum and a non-executive board member of the Pension Protection Fund and Personal Accounts Delivery Authority. She has also served on both the Equality and Human Rights (2006-09) and Equal Opportunities Commissions (2000-07). Drake spent more than thirty-five years in the trade union movement before stepping down as Deputy General Secretary of the Communications Workers Union in 2008. During her tenure, she spent a year as elected President of the TUC (2005). She was first elected to the General Secretary post in 1995, having spent a decade as Deputy General Secretary of the Clerical Section of the NCU. Drake had previously worked at the Civil and Public Servants Association (CPSA), joining the organisation in 1976. She began her union career after leaving university, becoming a research officer for the Health Union, NUPE. Drake was born in 1948.