Patrick Dunne

Experienced Chair with extensive experience of working with boards in Europe, Asia and North America. Currently Chair of board consultancy Boardelta, the charities The EY Foundation and ESSA- Education Sub Saharan Africa.

Executive experience with Air Products and FTSE 100 3i Group plc where he was Communications Director, a member of its Operating committee and Chair of its Operational Risk forum.

He has also helped Chairs across a wide range of sectors to transform the effectiveness of their boards through Boardelta and is the author of the award winning “Boards” and three other successful books on the subject.

Patrick was member of the Higgs Review and has helped to establish many successful courses on board skills over the last twenty years including for the BVCA, Invest Europe and the Financial Times as well as for numerous Social sector organisations.

He has a passion for education and was a member of the General Council of the University of Warwick from 2006 to 2015. He is a Visiting Professor at Cranfield School of Management, and an Associate Fellow at Warwick Business School. Patrick is also a former Chair of the Oversight Board for the Chartered Management Consultant and trustee of the Chartered Management Institute.

Patrick also has extensive experience of developing social enterprises, most notably with Leap Confronting Conflict where he is Patron and was Chairman, from 2006 to 2015, with ESSA- Education Sub-Saharan Africa which he founded in 2016, the EY Foundation and with Warwick in Africa which he founded in 2006.

In 2023 he was awarded an OBE in the King’s birthday Honours list for services to charity and philanthropy in the UK and Africa as well as The University of Warwick Chancellor’s medal for exceptional contribution and playing a major role in making it and maintaining it as a pre-eminent centre of academic excellence.