On her graduation from St Andrews, Chesters joined the
British Petroleum group of companies, in which for nearly twenty years she held posts in Britain and the
United States. Her last position with BP was as
CEO of its subsidiary Duckhams Oils. From 1990 to 2000, she was an elected member of
Camden London Borough Council, in which she led the Conservative group from 1998. She served on the
Local Government Association's Education Executive from 1997 to 2000 and was also a
school governor. She chaired the
Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust from 2001 to 2009 and the English Churches
Housing Group from 2003 to 2009, also serving as a board member of the Riverside Group from 2006 to 2009. She chaired the Council of Trustees of
Action for Children gaining 16,040 votes, and in 2006 was added to
David Cameron's
A-List of Conservative candidates. From May 2009 to May 2012, Chesters served as Advisor for Health and Youth Opportunities to the
Mayor of London,
Boris Johnson. She was Chair of Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust 2012 - 2016 and Chair of
Anchor Trust from 2013- 2018. More recently she was a member of Court at St Andrews University and chaired their Audit and Risk Committee. She is Chair of Council at the
University of Bath and a non-executive director on the Ministerial Board of the
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. ==Honours==