Suzy Walton Keynote Speaker

Dr Suzy Walton is an expert in corporate governance – how companies run and indeed how government runs. She has sat on over 15 major boards, was previously in UK’s Cabinet Office and Ministry of Defence (MoD) and is a speaker on corporate governance, diversity and portfolio careers.

Suzy, who has 7 children – the youngest arriving during the Covid pandemic, was the longest serving member on the board of the Institute of Directors (2013-2022) and is now a strategic advisor to the IoD.  She is also the former Vice-President of the Royal Society of Medicine and former Deputy Chair of the Royal Society of Arts.

She is an advisor to the Secretary of State for Health as a member of the national Independent Reconfiguration Panel – government’s expert group on NHS service change. She also sits on the Social Security Advisory Committee which scrutinises legislation on the welfare system. For the Ministry of Justice, Suzy hears disciplinary cases involving judges and in 2025 she was appointed by the Prime Minister to a policy role in the Cabinet Office. She is also a Vice-President of Combat Stress which treats veterans with PTSD.

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. She has also represented the UK in a global governance forum – GNDI.

She is a former board member of Birmingham Children’s Hospital and government’s Science Advisory Council. She is also the former Deputy Chair of the University of Westminster, and the Internet Watch Foundation which seeks to eradicate child sexual abuse from the internet. Suzy has also sat on the State Honours Committee in the Cabinet Office and on the board of HEFCE – the former regulator of the university sector.

Suzy had a long career in the Civil Service, working as an operational psychologist in the MoD – from where she obtained a PhD degree for her research into military suicide, and she also served in the Cabinet Office and the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit.

Suzy has three degrees and went to university in her 20s following a career as a West End actress and broadcaster. The highlight of her career on the stage was a three-year stint playing Lydia the young deaf girl in the award winning play “Children of a Lesser God.” As a broadcaster Suzy presented for the BBC and for Sky News. She also had her own travel programme on LBC radio where for three years she was producer, presenter, and editor of “Time Off.”

Suzy has BSc MSc and PhD degrees, is a Chartered Director, Chartered Scientist and Chartered Occupational Psychologist and has an honorary degree from a London university.