BEVERLEY STEPHENS was busy preparing to attend the Ashridge 'Strategy and Leadership' programme when I spoke with her. She had won the opportunity to attend this because she was the outstanding candidate in the RCN Leadership awards organised as part of the Nursing Standard Nurse of the Year competition in 2000. She exudes determination, confidence and concern for colleagues, all with a quiet insightfulness about the potential weakness of organisations and human nature. Difficult to guess her age, she presents an inquiring front to the world, ever conscious of how her own experience has formed her.