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Cindy Leslie

Oration

Vice Chancellor, President, distinguished guests, and graduates, I am delighted to present Cindy Leslie, former Birkbeck Governor, as a Fellow of Birkbeck.

Cindy was appointed an independent Governor here in October 2016, and over her nine years’ service, she has given this institution something that is rarer and more valuable than it might sound: she has told us the truth. Sometimes the inconvenient truth, but always carefully presented and delivered with absolute clarity.

Cindy grew up in a legal household. Her father was a High Court judge, and the family moved from Yorkshire to Surrey during her childhood. Whether it was inevitable that she would follow him into the law is a question only she can answer, but follow him she did, reading law at the University of Bristol. It is perhaps a measure of the affection she retains for Bristol that she later returned, not as a student but as a Governor of the University and a trustee of the Students' Union, giving back to the institution that had given her so much.

From Bristol, Cindy went into legal practice and joined the major City law firm Dentons, where she would remain as a partner for over 25 years. Her specialism was commercial dispute resolution, a field she chose, she has said, because of the extraordinary variety of cases it brings. And varied they certainly were. Two cases that stand out from her career involved, respectively, establishing the value of online music, and determining the duties owed by pension fund trustees. Subjects that could hardly be further apart, and yet both required exactly the qualities Cindy brought to every matter: forensic attention to detail, total command of the facts, and an instinct for identifying what actually matters beneath the weight of papers in front of her. She was also, throughout her career at Dentons, a strong proponent of mediation, a skill she has put to great advantage in her non-executive roles.

When Cindy stepped back from Dentons, she did not step back from work. She simply changed the form it took. She has observed that in the course of her career she witnessed some excellent boards and… let’s just say some less than effective ones. She has spent the years since putting the lessons of both to good use. The list of organisations she has served in non-executive roles is, by any measure, remarkable:

  • the Solicitors Regulation Authority;
  • the Architects Registration Board;
  • Ofqual;
  • the Royal College of Psychiatrists;
  • Perennial, the Royal Gardeners' Benevolent Society;
  • Channing School in North London;
  • fitness to practise panels for the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service;
  • the Surrey Hills International Music Festival;
  • and, until recently, as Master of the Worshipful Company of Gardeners, having become a Freeman of the City of London in 1973 and a Liveryman in 1986.

What is striking about this list is not merely its length but its range. Healthcare, education, architecture, horticulture, music, the law. Cindy has brought her skills to bear across a remarkable breadth of contexts, and colleagues from all of them report the same experience: she arrives having read everything, having understood it, and having already identified the question that nobody else has yet thought to ask.

One colleague who served alongside her on the board of the Royal College of Psychiatrists recalls being asked, at a Board meeting, to share something that others might not know about themselves. Cindy's answer was that she was an extremely keen – and competitive – tennis player. So keen in fact that when she recently underwent a hip operation, her first question to the surgeon, possibly before she had fully recovered from the anaesthetic, was how soon she could play again. He told her three months. Three months to the day, she was back on court.

Our former Chair of Governors at Birkbeck recalls that he kept meeting her, unexpectedly, at theatres and concerts and parties, their social circles overlapping in ways neither had anticipated. The more obscure the production, he noted, the more likely it was that Cindy would be there. She is, as he put it, someone with a very big hinterland. Another Birkbeck colleague, who often found himself seated beside her at Governors' meetings, came to appreciate the contrast between her forensic engagement with the detail of every set of papers and his own rather more impressionistic attitude towards them. They may have disagreed in their approach to the content, but they agreed, very often, in their conclusions, and he found her willingness to support him, when it mattered, both generous and invaluable.

Perhaps the most telling testimony of all is that of Professor Sally Wheeler, our Vice-Chancellor, herself no stranger to forensic intelligence and direct speech. Sally simply noted: "I was scared of Cindy. She is ferociously intelligent, hugely well informed, and never, in the nicest possible way, leaves you in any doubt what she thinks."

When the Vice-Chancellor of your institution admits to finding you that formidable, you may consider it a compliment of the highest order.

As Chair of the Birkbeck Audit Committee, a role of which she is rightly proud, Cindy demonstrated all these attributes and more during what has been a genuinely challenging period. She brought to the role a clear understanding of the issues facing the College, a mastery of the detail, and a resolute focus on what matters. She delivered her reports to the full Governing Body firmly and clearly and, as another colleague observed, always with a twinkle, even when the message was a tough one. She has balanced rigorous challenge and scrutiny with positive and constructive engagement. She has encouraged and supported the executive through difficult times. And she has never been afraid to say what needed to be said.

Ask those who have worked with Cindy at Birkbeck what they think, and the answer is consistent. She is, in the words of one colleague, surprising, implacable, and conscientious. She is optimistic yet without illusions. She is serious yet possessed of an excellent dry wit. She is formidable, and she is warm, with a lovely smile, and if you know where to look you will find her at the theatre, on a tennis court, or in a garden.

Cindy's family are here with us today, her husband Andrew and their two sons and daughter, and we are delighted that they can share this moment with her. Those of us who know Cindy well know that for all her professional achievements, her family is what she is most proud of.

Birkbeck is extremely grateful to Cindy for the significant contribution she made as a Governor. On behalf of all who have had the good fortune to work with her here, thank you Cindy, and we are delighted you will continue to be a part of the Birkbeck Community as a Fellow.