Tesse Akpeki

Formerly Head of the Trustee and Governance team at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations for eight years, Tesse heads the governance development programme at city law firm Bates Wells and Braithwaite London LLP.  She undertakes governance, organisational development, board policy development, governance reviews and board training assignments. Recently she has been involved in a range of international governance assignments, working in Africa, North America, and Bermuda.

Tesse is a qualified coach,  an apt facilitator, an appreciative inquiry practitioner,  an enabler and trainer. She is a lawyer  and a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators. She  served as a non-executive board director of West London Mental Health Trust and currently is a governor of International Student House, chairing in Governance Advisory Committee. She trained as a governance consultant with  BoardSource (a globally recognised governance organisation based in Washington DC) and  undertook and evaluation project on their behalf in Africa. Tesse  qualified in the four mastery programme run by Learning as Leadership based in San Francisco, USA. She has advised and designed a number of civil society leadership programmes. Tesse currently blogs for Civil Society Media.