Suzy Walton

Dr Suzy Walton – board director, broadcaster, keynote speaker and mother of 7 – sits on countless boards and is the former Vice President of the Royal Society of Medicine and the former Deputy Chair of the Royal Society of Arts.

She has the honour of being the longest standing board director at the Institute of Directors (IoD), serving for almost a decade until 2022. She also chaired the Accreditation and Standards Committee and is now a Strategic Advisor to the IoD. Suzy is a Vice-President of Combat Stress which treats veterans with PTSD. For government, she sits on the national Independent Reconfiguration Panel which advises on large scale change in the NHS and for the Ministry of Justice she hears disciplinary cases involving judges. She is also a member of the Social Security Advisory Committee which works with DWP and HMRC on social security and related matters.

Suzy was on the board of Birmingham Children’s Hospital and was Deputy Chair of the Internet Watch Foundation which seeks to eradicate child sexual abuse from the Internet. She is also the former Deputy Chair of the University of Westminster. To date, Suzy has sat on 15 major boards.

Suzy was a Senior Civil Servant for many years in the Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office and the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit. Her commitment to government has continued. As well as her current work for the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Health, she has been a member of the State Honours Committee in the Cabinet Office, the Science Advisory Group in Defra and the Ethics Group of the National DNA Database in the Home Office.

Internationally, Suzy is a former board member for ACCA which regulates the accountancy profession around the world. She sat on their Regulatory Board and chaired their Qualifications Board. Suzy also represents the UK in a global governance forum – GNDI. Her deep knowledge and varied experience make her an expert on Corporate Governance – how organisations run, and how diversity is a key element of success.

She is a mother of seven, her youngest arriving during the COVID pandemic, and manages to balance her work and home life, making Suzy an irresistible motivational speaker.

Suzy holds three degrees including a PhD for military suicide research. Before university she had a career as a West End actress playing the juvenile lead of Lydia the young deaf girl in “Children of a Lesser God.” She was with the show for over three years and then became a broadcaster - for LBC Radio she was producer, presenter and editor of her own travel programme – Time Off.

Suzy talks in particular about ‘lucky escapes’. Drawing on her experiences on the stage, in the boardroom and as a mother of 7, Suzy talks about how many of the things that turned out well for her happened by chance because of something she didn’t do – a lucky escape if you like.

Suzy is an expert at juggling complex responsibilities and achieving success in the face of significant barriers. In her talks she inspires others to believes that with the right motivation and courage, everyone is capable of more than they think.