Suzanne Heywood

Suzanne Heywood, Baroness Heywood of Whitehall, is a British executive, former civil servant, and author whose extraordinary memoir chronicles one of the most unusual childhoods imaginable. She holds a CBE and has had a distinguished career in both public service and the private sector, currently serving as Chief Operating Officer of the Exor Group and chair of CNH Industrial. Her memoir Wavewalker tells the story of being taken to sea by her parents at the age of seven on what was supposed to be a three-year voyage around the world retracing Captain Cook's third voyage. The trip lasted a decade, during which she endured storms, shipwrecks (including in the Indian Ocean), isolation, and minimal formal schooling. The book recounts her fight to gain an education and return to a normal life — a fight she won spectacularly, arriving back in the UK at seventeen and winning a place at Oxford University, followed by a PhD at Cambridge, and a career as a senior partner at McKinsey. Her audiobooks and books offer listeners and readers a gripping, inspiring account of survival, self-determination, and the transformative power of education — a real-life adventure story told with clarity and emotional honesty.