Kate Board, Chief Executive

Kate Board joined the organisation in 2008. Before this, she worked for thirty years for the British Council. Beginning her career as a Teacher of English in Afghanistan, Kate subsequently worked at senior management level in a number of countries including Colombia, Germany, Spain and Peru before taking on the post of Regional Director for the Americas (2000–2002) and later Geographical Director, with responsibility for the whole of the Overseas Network (110 countries) and a member of the British Council’s Executive Board (2005 – 2008).

Born in Oxfordshire in 1952, Kate spent most of her childhood in Hampshire. She was educated at La Sagesse Convent in Romsey, Hampshire and Royal Holloway College, University of London where she gained a BA (Hons) degree in German and English.  She later obtained an MA with Distinction from the University of Leeds in Applied Linguistics and Phonetics and worked as a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and Phonetics in the English Dept at the University of Ghent in Belgium.   

Kate’s many years working abroad has developed her passion for languages and intercultural understanding.  She feels enormously privileged to have had the experience of an international career and wants to encourage and inspire young people to learn languages so that they can also experience the world first hand in their working life.