Speech Day

2023

Dr Melissa Uchida MInstP – University of Cambridge, Associate Professor of Particle Physics and Head of the Neutrino Group.

2022

Bridget Kendall, MBE, Hon FBA – BBC Correspondent, appointed first female Master of Peterhouse in 2016, the oldest college at the University of Cambridge.

2020 & 2021

No Speech Day held due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

2019

The Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, DBE, DL

2018

Lord-Lieutenant of Essex, Jennifer Tolhurst DL

2017

Prof. Dame Carol Black, Principal of Newnham College, University of Cambridge.

2016

Emma-Jane Kirby, (CCHS Alumnae), Reporter for the BBC, focussing on Europe.  Awarded Bayeux-Calvados prize for war correspondents in 2015.  In 2016 published a novel based on migration stories.

2015

Julie Chappell OBE, Partner at Hawthorn Advisors.  In 2009-2012 she served as Britain’s youngest Ambassador with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

2014

Air Vice Marshall Elaine West CBE.  The most senior female officer in the British Armed Forces.

2013

Jan Babiak, independent business leader in global management.  In 2005 the CBI cited her as the ‘First Woman of Technology’ and recipient of a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ by Women in Business and Finance in 2007.

2012

Prof. Dame Carol Black, Principal of Newnham College, University of Cambridge.  In 2012 she was Expert Adviser on Health and Work to the Department of Health, Chairman of the Nuffied Trust, Chairman of the Governance Board of the Centre for Workforce Intelligence, President of the British Lung Foundation and Pro-Chancellor of the University of Bristol.

2011

Baroness Verma served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for International Development from May 2015 until July 2016.  She has been a Conservative member of the House of Lords since 2006 and previously served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for DECC.

2010

Baroness Shami Chakrabarti CBE, is a Labour Party politician and member of the House of Lords. She is also a barrister, and was the director of Liberty, an advocacy group which promotes civil liberties and human rights, from 2003 to 2016.

2009

Prof. Frances Balkwill OBE, leads the Centre for Cancer and Inflammation at Barts Cancer Institute.  She is investigating the links between cancer and inflammation.  She is an author on scientific papers and also a children’s author on scientific topics.

2008

Sarah Deaves, was the first female Chief Executive of Coutts & Co, the UK’s leading private bank, she now works at Lloyds Banking Group.  She is an accomplished financial services chief executive and is often parachuted into turnaround/recovery situations.

2007

Dame Kate Barker DBE FAcSS is a British economist. She is principally noted for her roles at the Bank of England and for advising the British government on social issues such as housing and health care.

2006

Claudia Sturt, Prison Service’s first ever Director of Security, Order and Counter Terrorism.

2005

Sir Cyril Taylor GBE Founder and Chairman of the American Institute for Foreign Study (AIFS), Founder Chairman of the City Technology Colleges Trust, now Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT), he now serves as a Trustee.

2004

Martha Kearney, journalist and broadcaster. She is the main presenter of BBC Radio 4’s lunchtime news programme The World at One.