Dawn was born and educated in Northern Ireland, before heading to university in Edinburgh to study Mathematics and Statistics. After graduating, she started her career in financial services as a graduate entrant in the insurance world. She became an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute and shortly after moved south and into retail financial services within Banking, particularly focusing on customer facing roles and working her way up through sales, marketing, training and operational management. In 1997 she became Managing Director of the independent financial advisory (IFA) services company owned by Woolwich plc.

In 2000 she was instrumental in acquiring another Financial Advisory Company, Sedgwick, and integrating this into the Woolwich, becoming the Director of IFA Operations.

Following a take over by Barclays Bank plc, she had overall responsibility for the retail advice service to both Woolwich and Barclays’ customers and specialised in sales management and the development of a training and competence regime for the Bank’s regulated sales forces. She was also Chairman of Barclays’ newly launched international advisory service in Luxembourg.

In 2005 Dawn retired from full time executive work to spend more time with her family and develop several non-executive interests. She currently sits on the Management Board of the Valuation Office Agency, part of HM Revenue and Customs, chairs the VOA Audit Committee and in January 2007 joined the Defence Academy as a non-executive member.

She lives with Tony and her two very active daughters, Rebecca, 13 and Alex, 11, in Camberley, in the house they designed and built. Once a keen oarswoman, she now jogs regularly to keep fit and recently qualified as a field official for the UK Athletics Association. She enjoys socialising and also does the odd spot of cooking, but not to any recognisable standard she is quick to point out!