Simon Jenkins became Chairman of the National Trust on 1 November 2008.

He is a journalist and author and writes a column twice weekly for the Guardian, as well as broadcasting for the BBC. Previously he wrote columns for the Times, the London Evening Standard, both of which newspapers he edited, and the Sunday Times. His career began on Country Life magazine and continued on the Times Educational Supplement, the Economist (political editor) and the Sunday Times (books editor). He served on the boards of British Rail and London Transport in the 1980s and was deputy chairman of English Heritage and a Millennium Commissioner. He was Journalist of the Year in 1988 and Columnist of the Year in 1993. His books include works on the press, politics, and architecture, including England's Thousand Best Churches (1999) and Thousand Best Houses (2003). Most recently, Thatcher & Sons was published in October 2006 by Penguin.