Suzy, a scientist by background, is currently a full-time non-executive director (NED). She sits on the boards of Birmingham Children’s Hospital, the University of Westminster, the Internet Watch Foundation, and Combat Stress, which treats war veterans with post traumatic stress disorder. She is also a member of the government’s Science Advisory Council (for Defra) the Ethics Group of the National DNA Database and the National Specialist Commissioning Group, which oversees a healthcare budget for people with rare conditions. She is also an Ambassador for Diversity on Boards (appointed by the Government Equalities Office).

Before becoming a full-time NED in 2008, Suzy was a Senior Civil Servant and spent twelve years in Whitehall, working variously as a scientist, a military psychologist and in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit and the Cabinet Office (the West End stint, when Suzy was 18 was a brief foray into performing that happened more by luck than design).

While in Whitehall, Suzy headed up a programme of work for the Prime Minister aimed at making boards and policy in government more strategic. This gave her an appetite for corporate governance and so she took herself off to qualify as a Chartered Director (“an MBA for the boardroom”) as she wanted to have a recognised business qualification. She became the first Senior Civil Servant to attain this qualification – awarded by the Institute of Directors, and used it to build a portfolio of NED roles spanning many sectors.

Suzy has BSc (1st class Hons), MSc and PhD degrees. Her PhD was awarded while she was in the Ministry of Defence for her work on suicide prevention in the military.

She has published extensively as an academic, writing on social policy and mental health issues. She also works as a speaker and a coach/consultant.

Suzy works passionately as a public interest advocate and her ability to combine a full time career with bringing up a large family means she is regarded as a powerful role model.
www.suzywalton.com

Dr Suzy Walton – a Chartered Scientist, Chartered Director and Chartered Psychologist has a career that’s spanned acting on the West End stage, producing and presenting for Sky News, the BBC and LBC Radio and working as a Senior Civil Servant in Whitehall. “A touch schizophrenic” is how Suzy describes her work life and that’s before she confesses to also managing five children including a baby born summer 2010.