Kate Lee

Type of Fellowship: General
Year of Fellowship: 2010

Update March 2011

During October and November, I completed a secondment at Frontline SMS, a relatively new community interest company, working in mobile technology. I chose the secondment as an antidote to working in a big charity and found the experience both stretching and rewarding. The focus of my work included supporting the design of the new strategy and costing model as well as helping them consider legal entities and funding streams.

In December, I started my new role as CEO of the Myton Hospice Group, a £9m charity delivering palliative care services across Coventry and Warwickshire. My coach helped me work through a number of issues including how to make a transition into a CEO role, how to understand and agree the expectations of me and how to establish and maintain a better life-balance in my new role.

In January, I began to write up my research – a 'think piece' article on whether there is a good business, not just moral, case for charities to become more transparent.  I found getting the right balance in the piece very difficult; I made a conscious decision not to do an academic piece of research, partly because I had done that as part of my Masters and partly because I have no experience of writing just to inspire debate or challenge.  I am aiming to complete the article by early April.

Twitter: @skiddy30

Current principal role: CEO
Current principal organisation: Myton Hospice
Other leadership role 1: Trustee
Other organisation 1: CoppaFeel
Other leadership role 2: Governor
Other organisation 2: Secondary school

Research: Transparency - Open all hours
Research topics: Governance; Leadership;
Secondment host: Frontline sms