Dr Suzy Walton

Dr Suzy Walton is the former Vice-President of the Royal Society of Medicine and has also been Deputy Chair at the University of Westminster, the Royal Society of Arts and the Internet Watch Foundation which seeks to eradicate child sexual abuse from the internet.

Suzy has also been on the board of Birmingham Children’s Hospital and government’s Science Advisory Council. She has international experience from sitting on the Regulatory Board of ACCA – the global regulator for the accountancy profession. For ACCA, she also chaired the global Qualifications Board.

She has also sat on many government bodies including the Ethics Group of the National DNA Database in the Home Office, the State Honours Committee in the Cabinet Office, the Higher Education Funding Council for BEIS and she is currently on the Independent Reconfiguration Panel which advises the Secretary of State for Health. Suzy also sits as a lay member for the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office which is part of the Ministry of Justice. She hears disciplinary cases involving judges and other members of the judiciary.

Suzy had a long career in central government as a Senior Civil Servant. She was a military psychologist in the Ministry of Defence and during her time there she was awarded a PhD degree for her research on military suicide. She also worked in the Cabinet Office and the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit.

Suzy went to university late, having previously had careers on the stage and as a broadcast journalist. She started out life as a West End actress. For over three years she had a leading role in the award-winning play “Children of a Lesser God.” From there she moved into broadcast journalism and worked as a presenter for BBC Television and a news producer and reporter for Sky News. She also had her own Travel Programme on LBC Radio for several years.

Suzy describes her greatest achievement as being the proud mother of 7 children – the youngest arriving at the start of the Covid pandemic. For many years Suzy was a widow. Her experience of combining a full-time career with bringing up a large family makes her a powerful speaker.

• Corporate governance
• Diversity
• Having it all …empowering women to follow their ambitions

Suzy talks in particular about ‘lucky escapes’ – her belief is that you don’t have to have a plan to succeed. 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.