After 14 years leading the National Governance Association, the experts on school & trust governance & membership organisation for school governors, trustees & governance professionals in England, I have left an organisation in good health, far bigger than the one I inherited in 2010. I am still keeping a watching eye on developments in the education sector as I finish a book entitled: The Power of Governance, which will document the changes over that period.At NGA my role was to ensure the provision of excellent services to members; to be the face of the NGA; to develop policy & providing thought leadership and work with partners; and of course to be accountable to the board of trustees and ensure NGA’s financial sustainability. In short my role is to ensure NGA delivers its charitable objects of improving the outcomes for children by improving the governance in state-funded schools. I'm particularly interested in ethical leadership, board dynamics, equity, diversity and inclusion, tackling disadvantage, collaboration across place, and accountability of public services. I was also especially pleased to have led NGA's Greener Governance work in the last few years, encouraging boards to take environmental sustainability seriously.In previous roles - all some time ago now! - I worked on early education, extended services, family friendly policy, child poverty, child support and welfare benefits, legal aid policy and delivery, homelessness as well as working as a legal adviser, an advocate and a community worker. This was all primarily in the not-for-profit sector - I am a champion of social enterprise and have advised charities on how to add value and to make their case to funders. And for a short time I worked for local government, including in the children services team at LGA. As well as underlining the range of topics I'm very interested in, that list gives many of the lenses through which I view the world, with the more recent addition of climate change, an issue where my passion was ignited by my own grown-up children and then sustained by so many other young people as well as my increasing knowledge.