Women in Leadership conference - Speakers

Cathy has been at DSC for 20 years, in a variety of roles. With over 30 years of experience in learning and organisational development, Cathy continues to ensure our customers have the best resources to carry out their work and help their beneficiaries.

Cathy regularly works with Chairs, Trustees and Boards, supporting them with board development, effectiveness and trustee relationships. She is particularly helpful in facilitating Board Review using the Governance App and the Code of Governance.

The best thing for Cathy about working with DSC is knowing that the quality of products and services we provide to charities makes a difference on the front line.

Debra has worked in the charitable and voluntary sector for nearly 40 years with brief forays into the private sector.

Amongst numerous other roles, she is Co-Chair of the Soldiering on Awards. She is a Trustee of In Kind Direct, one of the Prince's Foundation Charities, a governor of the Berkshire NHS Community Foundation Trust, a Commissioner on the Local News Commission of the Public Interest News Foundation, and just recently stood down as trustee of the Berkshire Community Foundation.

She is also an Africa Advocacy Foundation Ambassador for women and girls at risk of or affected by Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Debra has served as a trustee of several charities including being the co-founder of the Small Charities Coalition and was its first Chair. She served on the Charity Commission's SORP committee for over 7 years and was the Vice-Chair of Governors of Whiteknights primary school for 6 years.

She is a renowned public speaker with many years' experience of training and coaching and is an internationally published author of several books on management and leadership including It's Tough at the Top; The Pleasure and the Pain; It's Murder in Management and It's a Battle on the Board. Debra has a regular monthly column in Third Sector magazine and has appeared on Radio 4's The Moral Maze.

Debra is an alumna of Windsor Leadership having participated on the Strategic Leaders Consultation.

Eileen joined DSC in January 2018, and having worked within the commercial teams in charities and social enterprises brought a wealth of experience of generating income and delivering high quality services into the DSC Sales team.

Eileen’s many years’ experience as a trainer in both the commercial and 3rd sectors was then employed as she became a member of the Training team, designing, updating, producing, retailing and delivering courses and workshops.

Eileen enjoys being part of a team that is genuine, professional and totally committed to building sustainable charities with well trained, confident trustees, employees and volunteers.

Caron is Chief Executive of Charity Finance Group. Previously she was Head of the Charity and Voluntary Sector at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). In addition to supporting a number of small charities and community organisations, Caron has been a member of the NCVO’s National Assembly and the Charities SORP Committee, has sat on a number of government working parties, is a non-executive director of the Lending Standards Board, a member of the Church of England Pension Board’s Audit and Risk Committee, and former chair of the board of the Directory of Social Change. She was also chair of her local hockey club. She was named in the top 30 UK social influencers in Risk, Compliance and Regtech 2017.

Caron is a trained barrister and has a wide array of experience across charity, regulation, law, policy, member support and professional ethics. In 2015 she was named Charity Principal of the Year at the Charity Times Awards. In 2016 she received the Association Excellence Award for Leadership. Caron is an avidly social CEO and has been named in the top 30 social CEOs in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Caron was honoured with an OBE for her services to charity in the New Year’s Honours lists in 2021.