As Managing Director of SDDirect, Sue’s role is to empower the team to deliver excellent and innovative social development consultancy and research with inclusion and social justice at its heart.
Sue has long experience in international political and governance development work, with a particular focus on women’s political leadership and participation in fragile and conflict-affected states. She has led work on inclusive governance and institutional development through design, implementation and monitoring of programmes as well as strategic analysis for donor agencies and analytical consultancy work for other organisations, working in a range of institutions and policy areas.
Her project work has included strategic and political economy analysis, evaluation and review work for programmes and organisations in the development field, as well as provision of practical support and advice to politicians, parliamentary and party staff. She has worked extensively in Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, amongst other countries. She joined SDDirect in 2020 from Global Partners Governance, a specialist provider of international support to political institutions, where she was Executive Director.
Sue has a deep belief in the impact of political systems and the quality of representation on development, social justice and equality. Her interest in politics is lifelong, but her career began in the UK House of Commons, where she was a senior official for 9 years, leading the secretariat to several select committees and providing specialist technical and support and procedural advice to legislative and oversight processes in a variety of roles.
Sue has a PhD in eighteenth-century French literature, a degree in French and Arabic and an MBA. Outside work, she enjoys walking, travelling, eating and playing complicated games.
