Catherine Bishop (born 22 November 1971) is a former British rower. In partnership with Katherine Grainger she was World Champion in the coxless pair in 2003, and in 2004 they won a silver medal at the Olympic Games. Following a career as a diplomat she is now a leadership speaker, writer and consultant.

Early life and education

Bishop was born in Leigh on Sea, England, and educated at

Westcliff High School for Girls Westcliff High School for Girls, also known by its initialism WHSG, is a selective grammar school and academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name tra ...

. She has a BA in modern languages from

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...

, a master's in international politics from the

University of Wales, Aberystwyth Aberystwyth University () is a public research university in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding member institution of the former federal University of Wales. The university has over 8,000 students studying across three academic facul ...

and a Ph.D. in contemporary German literature from the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

Career

Rowing

Bishop won medals at the World Championships twice, a silver in 1998 in the women's pair with Dot Blackie, and gold in 2003, again in the pair, with Katherine Grainger. In 1999 she was the World Indoor Rowing Champion. She competed in the Women's Eight in the Olympic Games in Atlanta (1996), the Coxless Pair in Sydney (2000) before going on to win silver in the

2004 Olympic Games The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

in the Women's coxless pair with Grainger.

Diplomacy

From 2001 through 2014 Bishop forged a career with the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...

, for whom she worked in London; Sarajevo, Bosnia; and Basra Iraq. Her roles included : Political, projects and press officer at British Embassy, Sarajevo, from 2004; Political Adviser to the High Representative to Bosnia & Herzegovina from 2006; Head of the Political Section at the British Consulate in Basra from 2007; and Deputy Director of the Stabilisation Unit in London from 2009 to 2011.British Government CV

Consultancy

Bishop now has a consultancy business specialising in leadership and team performance drawing on her successful sports career.

References

External links

* *
Speakerscorner.co.uk
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bishop, Cath 1971 births Olympic rowers for Great Britain Rowers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Rowers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Rowers at the 2004 Summer Olympics English female rowers Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Alumni of Aberystwyth University Alumni of the University of Reading Living people Olympic medalists in rowing Olympic silver medallists for Great Britain People educated at Westcliff High School for Girls Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics World Rowing Championships medalists for Great Britain Stewards of Henley Royal Regatta 21st-century English sportswomen 20th-century English sportswomen