Adam Sampson to leave Shelter

Finance | Tania Mason | 4 Mar 2009

Shelter chief executive Adam Sampson is to leave the homelessness charity after six years to become the first chief of a new legal services ombudsman.

He will leave Shelter at a tumultous time for the charity – it recently endured several months of industrial disputes over pay and conditions and some redundancies, and has had to swallow swingeing cuts in donations from several corporate supporters due to the recession.

At the same time, it is facing heightened public demand for its services and an ongoing internal debate about whether it should be pursuing a path of increased public service delivery, as advocated by Sampson.

And it is struggling to achieve stability among its senior team – as well as Sampson’s news, Shelter currently has an acting chair, Hugh Norton, and director of fundraising Alan Gosschalk is to leave in a few months after his role was combined with another.

The charity has already announced it will employ an interim chief executive in the short-term while a permanent successor is sought.

‘Satisfying and challenging’

Sampson (pictured) said: “The six or more years I have spent in Shelter have been some of the most satisfying – and challenging – of my life. Shelter has been, and always will be, very important to me and I always knew it would take a special job to tempt me away.”

But he set the prospect of setting up and leading a new organisation to protect consumer interests was “too exciting to turn down”.

Hugh Norton paid tribute to the “strong executive leadership” Sampson had shown during his tenure,and said the board was grateful to him “for taking Shelter through a period of considerable change and challenge”.

“More importantly, he has helped to move housing issues from the periphery to the centre of the political landscape.”

The independent Office of Legal Complaints is being set up to monitor and resolve disputes between members of the legal profession and those that use their services. Sampson has already had experience of a similar dispute resolution role, joining the Home Office as assistant prisons ombudsman in 1994.

Who's Who: Tania Mason

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