Kate Lee

Background

About Kate Lee

Kate is an award winning CEO, speaker and consultant guiding transformational change. Kate is excited to be taking up the role of CEO for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations in October 2025. Previously Kate was CEO Alzheimer’s Society, the UK’s largest voluntary provider of dementia support, as Chief Executive in March 2020. Despite the challenges of COVID-19, since joining she has driven transformational change in both culture and strategy; introducing new values, restructuring expenditure, and building a shared understanding and organisation-wide focus on the impact Alzheimer’s Society delivers to people affected by dementia. This role is the latest in a voluntary sector career that spans nearly 30 years, including as CEO at children’s cancer charity Young Lives Vs Cancer (CLIC Sargent), and Myton Hospice, a large adult palliative care charity in Coventry and Warwickshire. Kate is driven by leading by example. A keen supporter of partnership working, she founded both the Young People’s Cancer Coalition and the One Dementia Voice Group. She has led sector-wide initiatives to improve the openness of charitable reporting, producing award-winning trustee accountability reports publicly discussing the successes, but also the failings, of the charities she has led. She is a passionate advocate of equality, diversity and inclusion and has spoken openly about her own mental health. A proud Yorkshire woman, Kate now lives in Coventry with her partner and two children; she loves gardening and tea. Kate has won the Charity Times CEO of the year twice, and was awarded an OBE in the 2024 New Years Honours list.