About me
I left school after my A-levels and did all my further qualifications while working – sometimes being lucky enough to be sponsored by my employer and sometimes self-funded. I don’t come from a family where people were expected to go to university, so I’m grateful to have had these opportunities, and I believe in making education accessible for all.
I have an MSc in Organisational Behaviour, an ILM L7 in Executive Coaching and Leadership Mentoring, and I am a Fellow of the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development).
I applied for the External Trusteeship for a few reasons; I’ve been interested in developing my experience as a non-executive Director and I wanted to do that with an organisation that aligns with my interests. Having done all my qualifications while working, becoming a Trustee of the Association absolutely ticked both of those boxes for me. I joined the Board in April 2024 and have enjoyed hearing from students about their views, and about how their membership of the Association has really made a positive difference to their time at the OU.
I currently work as a coach and organisation development consultant – which means I spend some of my time working with individuals to help them be more effective, confident and visible at work, some of my time helping teams work together and some of my time facilitating groups of two or 300 people to get big projects mobilised. I enjoy the variety. I’ve worked in sectors as diverse as publishing, construction, medical and high-performance sport before becoming a consultant.
Outside of work, I enjoy running, swimming and walking my two dogs – both of which are rescue dogs. From time to time, I also foster dogs while they are looking for new homes – although as that’s how I ended up with my second dog, I do need to be careful about not wanting to keep them all!