- My father, a university lecturer, came to England in 1939 as a refugee. He is grateful beyond words to this country and so am I. My mother was a teacher originally from the West Country. I was born in Honiton and grew up in rural Hampshire. After graduating from Cambridge I worked in the City and on Wall Street.
- After a career as banking correspondent and leader writer with the Daily Telegraph and Evening Standard, I covered the impact of recession on small business and families as well as campaigning for Safer Stations and other transport improvements, showing me how to create sustained, engaging media coverage for local campaigns.
- Career highlights include: helping launch a successful financial comment website - so I know the challenges small businesses face. I also served as a transport policy adviser to the Conservatives in opposition and as review co-ordinator for the 2012 Hodgson Review of the 2006 Charities Act. As a non-executive director of the Student Loans Company from 2016 to 2019, I served on the SLC Whitehall Group, the Remuneration, People and Organisational Design Committee and chaired an employment grievance appeal panel. My travel contribution to the New York Times was published in Footsteps - Literary Pilgrimages around the World in 2017.
- While bringing up three sons - all now adult - with my husband Simon, I became a local councillor. Previously cabinet member responsible for public protection and licensing, I then chaired the pension fund committee, serving as Conservative Lead on the Shareholder Committee of the London Local Authority Collective Investment Vehicle, the pensions pool for council employees in the capital.
- As one of four volunteer founders, I opened a Department for Education-funded “free school” in September 2014, successful, Ofsted-Good and expanding into its neighbouring state-of-the-art sites. I served as vice-chairman of governors from 2013 to 2020, as a member of the Audit and Finance committees and the Head Teacher performance review group as well as having safeguarding, governor training and religious education responsibilities.
- I am a trustee of the fact-checking charity Full Fact and a Secretary of State-appointed member of the South Downs National Park Authority.