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Dr Suzy Walton
Dr Suzy Walton PhD, the former Vice-President of the Royal Society of Medicine, is a mother of 7 and has sat on over 15 boards. Previously, she was a Senior Civil Servant in the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Defence. She has also been a West End actress and had a career as a broadcast journalist working for Sky News, BBC Television and LBC Radio for whom she had her own travel programme.
About Dr Suzy Walton
Dr Suzy Walton, who is a Chartered Director, Chartered Scientist and Chartered Occupational Psychologist, has sat on the boards of many organisations both national and international. She also has the honour of being the longest serving board member for the IoD – clocking up almost a decade. She is also a Vice-President of Combat Stress which helps veterans with PTSD.
Dr Suzy Walton, the former Vice-President of the Royal Society of Medicine has also been the Deputy Chair of the Royal Society of Arts, the University of Westminster, and the Internet Watch Foundation – an organisation seeking to eradicate child sexual abuse from the internet.
No stranger to corporate governance, Suzy has also sat on the boards of Birmingham Children’s Hospital and ACCA which is the global regulator for the accountancy profession. For ACCA, she also chaired the global Qualifications Board. Suzy’s longest stint on a board has been for the Institute of Directors, where she served for almost a decade until 2022. She has also been a member of the HEFCE council – the former regulator of the higher education sector.
Suzy went to university late, having previously had careers on the stage and as a broadcast journalist. Leaving her home town of Nottingham aged just 16 Suzy found herself playing a leading role in the award winning West End show “Children of a Lesser God.” Suzy had to learn American sign language and was with the production for over three years.
Suzy then moved into broadcast journalism working as a presenter and news producer for BBC Television and Sky News. She was also presenter, producer and editor of her own travel programme – Time Off on LBC Radio.
Suzy then achieved BSc and MSc degrees and had a career as a Senior Civil Servant. She worked in the Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office and the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit. She has fond memories of her first role as an Operational Psychologist at the end of a runway in Farnborough. She was also awarded a PhD degree for her research into military suicide.
Suzy left government to pursue a portfolio career and has sat on over 15 boards. She has also retained a strong commitment to government serving on many committees including the State Honours Committee in the Cabinet Office, the Science Advisory Council in Defra and the Ethics Group of the National DNA Database in the Home Office.
Currently, she is an advisor to the Secretary of State for Health on the Independent Reconfiguration Panel. She also sits as a member of the disciplinary panel for the Ministry of Justice hearing cases involving judges.
Suzy describes her greatest achievement as being the proud mother of 7 children – the youngest arriving during 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.
