Dr Cathy Stephens OBE

Director Innovation, British Council

CathyStephensCathy joined the British Council in 1978 and was Geographical Director, Africa and Asia from 2003. Since October 2007 she has been a member of the Executive Board and as Director Innovation has responsibility for setting in place long term strategy through developing a cultural relations portfolio of large scale programmes which are transformational for cultural relations. After university she worked for the American Peace Corps and UNESCO, before joining the British Council in the Educational Contracts Department. She has worked principally in Africa and Asia in a range of offices overseas including Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Indonesia with postings in the UK where she was responsible for geographical desk relations on Africa and Asia.  She is a specialist in cultural relations with India where she worked for more than a decade.  More recently she held the role of Regional Director West Africa and Director Nigeria. Cathy has led major projects and implemented extensive changes to our programmes in a number of these countries.  With three decades of international experience of cultural relations and programme development, she is able to provide a perspective on what works and what doesn't. Among her interests she lists international affairs, travelling and reading.