Coaching and mentoring

As a coach, mentor and extra pair of hands for the heavy lifting of organisational strategy and culture, I draw on a 20-year senior leadership career in civil society, and on nearly 20 years before that as an editor and journalist in a fast-paced media environment. I aim to leave clients - whether individuals, teams, or organisations - with no need to call me again.

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Civil society career

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I have been CEO of Shelter and Women's Aid, leading both through huge internal and external turbulence.

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Shelter

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I joined Shelter as CEO in August 2017 and launched a radical new strategy, new brand, new structure and dramatically different organisational culture. Joining Shelter in the immediate aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire drove my approach to the role and in particular led us to transform the public and political discourse surrounding the desperate need for more, high quality social homes. Shelter became more activist in spirit under my leadership, striving for anti-racism and to put the experience of people worst affected by the housing emergency at the heart of all its work.

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During my time as CEO, Shelter successfully campaigned for better conditions for social housing tenants, working in partnership with Grenfell United on what has now become the Social Housing Regulation Act. We also successfully pushed for the Renters Rights Act and secured the ban on evictions during the pandemic.

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I am a prominent commentator on social justice and women's issues, in the media and on platforms ranging from the first Women's March on London to the Oxford Union.

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Women's Aid

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I joined Women's Aid as CEO in early 2013. I took the charity from an existential level of financial risk, to a time of significant growth and security. Among other successes were a successful campaign to have coercive and controlling behaviour by an intimate partner made illegal, and a major initiative to raise the profile of the risk to women and children being posed by contact decisions in the family courts.

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Action for Children

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Before joining Women's Aid, I was Executive Director of External Relations at Action for Children, one of the UK's largest charities, and led major transformational change programmes.

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Media career

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As a journalist, I contributed to national newspapers, magazines and books, and I continue to blog and podcast. I won several major awards as an editor and writer, and ran a highly profitable media business. 

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Awards

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I was made CBE in 2020, was awarded Honorary Doctor of Laws by Bristol University in 2022 and was elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2021.