Susie Hills

Susie’s 30-year career spans the voluntary, corporate, and education sectors. She has led fundraising teams to transform their performance and has worked with boards and leadership across the U.K. higher education and nonprofit sectors. She combines expertise in fundraising and alumni relations with deep knowledge and experience in governance and board effectiveness.

Agile and effective governance and strategic fundraising are more important than ever in these challenging times for higher education.”

About Susie

Susie supports higher education and global organization leaders and teams, often during times of significant change. She is a seasoned fundraising leader who partners with boards and senior executives to transform fundraising strategies and drive ambitious outcomes. She brings deep expertise in principal and major gift fundraising, with a proven track record of securing gifts exceeding 1 million pounds. She champions governance in higher education, leading governance and board effectiveness reviews across the U.K. and developing frameworks to encourage leading-edge governance practices.

During her career, she has:

• Directed a wide range of governance effectiveness reviews that strengthened board performance and improved transparency across oversight structures. She has advanced sector thinking on governance and designed maturity frameworks to guide development.
• Led reviews focused on improvements to academic governance, focused on the role of the university senate or the academic board and its relationship with the council.
• Provided leadership advice and support on the development of effective fundraising campaigns, working with leadership to develop strategy and set and deliver campaign goals.
• Personally led initiatives to secure transformational gifts over 1 million pounds in the U.K. and Middle East and established effective campaign boards.
• Reviewed the performance of fundraising teams and advised on restructuring, leading to an increase in team performance and funds raised.
• Stepped into leadership roles to support clients during periods of transition and to ensure they achieve their fundraising goals.

Prior to joining Huron, Susie was the co-founder and joint CEO at Halpin Partnership, which was acquired by Huron in 2025. She served as director of development and alumni relations at the University of Exeter and corporate responsibility manager for Tesco PLC. She began her career in the voluntary sector, undertaking a variety of fundraising, marketing, and consultancy roles.

Susie earned a Bachelor of Arts with honors from Durham University and a postgraduate certificate in managing voluntary organizations from the University of Sheffield.

Susie is a trustee of the Halpin Trust and has been a governor for a school, a further education college, and a university. Known for her thought leadership, she is in demand as a conference speaker and writes regular commentary for the higher education sector. In 2019, she was named one of Unilever’s 50 Leading Lights in Kindness in the Financial Times.  Susie kickstarted KindFest — an online festival of kindness that ran for four years — and regularly writes and shares insights about the power of kindness.