Caroline Dunne

Background

Caroline is an Executive Coach and Change Practitioner with over 25 years’ experience working with senior leaders in complex, fast-evolving higher environments. She partners with academic and professional services leaders, including Executive Deans, Heads of School, Directors of central portfolios and services and Faculty Executive Managers, who are navigating sustained pressure, uncertainty and major change.

Caroline’s work is grounded in lived experience. She has held senior executive and advisory roles across universities in the UK and Australia, including serving as Chief of Staff to a Vice-Chancellor at a large, multi-campus institution. From the executive corridor to faculties, schools and central portfolios, Caroline has led and supported large-scale transformation programmes, cultural renewal and the development of internal change leadership capability.

Caroline brings a combination of hard-won, practical strategies and a calm, human approach. She understands the real tensions leaders face… delivering results while protecting people, making difficult decisions without losing sight of values, and staying steady when pressure is high.

Caroline brings rich insights into values-based leadership, ethical decision-making, inclusion and privilege, boundary-spanning collaboration, and the strategic alignment of leadership with organisational purpose. She draws on theory and her lived experience to help leaders engage with complexity, lead with integrity, and drive meaningful, systemic change.

Above all, Caroline believes that leadership is about people. Her coaching and consulting practice is rooted in the belief that when leaders are clear on who they are and what they stand for, they can lead with greater impact, courage, and care.