Sir Ciarán Devane and Kate Lee join James Ashton to discuss communicating in a crisis, diplomacy at work and when personal and professional lives collide.

Sir Ciarán Devane is chief executive of the British Council, the organisation which projects the UK’s image on the world. Since 1934 it has aimed to forge trust and understanding with other countries through arts and education programmes, and is the number one specialist English language teacher. Last year the British Council reached almost one billion people with its work and employs a staff of 12,000.

Sir Ciarán began his career as an engineer and manager for chemicals group ICI before becoming a management consultant. He changed direction in 2007 when he was appointed chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, the charity that helped care for his late wife, before taking over at the British Council in 2015.

Kate Lee is chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, the leading UK charity which supports more than 200,000 people with dementia every year. She took the helm in 2020 at short notice and with crises brewing as her predecessor departed early and national lockdown loomed.

Lee had to rebuild morale and is now campaigning for better family access to dementia sufferers in care homes – which includes her own mother.

She spent 14 years at the British Red Cross, rising to become director of strategy. For five years until 2020 she was chief executive of the cancer charity Clic Sargent.

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