I am a retired senior civil servant who worked as a policy advisor to many ministers. Since retirement, I have acted as a trustee to two charities as well as serving on the boards of two public bodies – one an ethics committee and one a regulatory body, where my main focus has been on enhancing corporate governance and communications.

This links directly to my Fellowship, which I undertook in 1981, when I visited the United States and Canada to study approaches to leadership and corporate communications in both public- and private-sector organisations. The information which I gathered and the contacts I made were of direct application to my work in public service.