William Sieghart has had a distinguished career in publishing and the arts. He established the Forward Prizes for Poetry in 1992 and founded the UK's National Poetry Day in 1994. He is a former chairman of the Arts Council Lottery Panel and current chairman of Forward Thinking, a charity seeking peace in the Middle East; the Somerset House Trust; and Street Smart, Action for the Homeless. He was awarded a CBE in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to public libraries.
