What was your highlight of 2025?
A personal highlight in 2025 was managing to get most of my family together in one place to celebrate my mother’s 80th birthday. A logistical miracle!
In my working life, I am proud of the role that the Northern Ireland Office has played in the last 12 months to help deliver the PM’s priorities, by developing relationships with other government departments and with the Northern Ireland Executive. The NIO is small, so relies on being able to add expertise at the right time and with the right people. That includes supporting policy development in other Whitehall departments that understands the potential impacts for devolved governments in the real world. By doing so, we help to make sure that the UK can be much greater than the sum of its parts.
What was the hardest part of being a leader in 2025?
The hardest thing is remembering to celebrate success and resisting being pulled into a negative headspace where challenges become the dominant narrative.
What are the main challenges facing the NIO in the coming year – and how are you planning to meet them?
In the year ahead, the challenge of making the most of the resources and expertise that we have, while delivering the best possible value for taxpayers, will require honest communication and leadership at every level. Maintaining and supporting agile, resilient and motivated teams is going to be needed too.
Being able to take full advantage of what AI offers is another challenge to be embraced in the year ahead. We can and should be doing things differently, while making sure that people and judgement is deployed appropriately and at the right point!
Finally, it can be a challenge for the NIO to ensure that the work it does is understood and valued across government in a context where sometimes priorities and public discourse do not seem immediately relevant. The team in London and Belfast is really good at seeing connections and making sure that others see and understand them too. But that will require constant attention and confidence in the year to come.
Which celebrity or historical figure would you choose to turn on the Christmas lights in your town – and why?
Father Christmas. Obviously.
Read all the entries to this year's perm secs round up here