Monthly meeting May 2025

Lisa Honan, CBE was the Governor of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha from April 2016 until May 2019. She is the first, and currently only, female to have held the post. Lisa was previously Head of Office in Kenya for the Department for International Development, and after holding the post in St Helena went on to be Head of the DFID Office in Nepal. Lisa is passionate about women’s issues and have dedicated a lot of her career to them and received a CBE for her work in promoting women and girls’ right in Kenya.

Lisa joined the Overseas Development Administration in 1975 as a Clerical Officer. She joined from secondary school with GCSEs only. Leaving in 2021, she was the only member of the Senior Civil Service to have not attended university or studied for A levels. She also failed her 11plus.