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New Acevo trading arm will devise products in response to sector needs

Governance | Tania Mason | 13 Jul 2011

Acevo is hosting a launch party for its new trading company this evening which will act as a showcase of the calibre of events its event management arm is able to produce.

Acevo Solutions Ltd and its two sub-brands Acevo Event Management and Acevo Consulting will be formally launched this evening with a party at Grange St Paul’s Hotel in London.

However, another idea that Acevo chief executive Sir Stephen Bubb mooted for Acevo Solutions earlier this year, of selling market intelligence about the sector to private companies, has been quietly shelved. Tom Flood CBE, chair of Acevo Solutions, told civilsociety.co.uk yesterday: “That one is in limbo for the moment.”

Flood, who is chief executive of BTCV and a trustee of Acevo, has taken over as chair of Acevo Solutions from the founding chair, entrepreneur Oliver Rothschild, who has now become president of the trading company. Acevo’s director of strategy Seb Elsworth will be working on the enterprise day-to-day along with a number of other staff.

Acevo Event Management will produce events for clients while Acevo Consulting will offer a matching service that pairs up consultants who have been accredited by Acevo with charities that need help with various issues.

Further products will be developed

More services will be developed over the coming months in response to the sector’s needs, Flood said. “It is about providing affordable solutions for charities in what is a very difficult time," he said.

“The next stage really depends on the creativity of the sector itself. We want to know, what are the demands chief executives are having at the moment that they would like Acevo Solutions to develop business products for?"

Acevo Solutions products are not just limited to Acevo members or to chief executives, though Flood admitted: “Acevo would obviously like more people to join Acevo once they know the quality of what the company can do.”

Asked what income targets Acevo had set for the business, Flood said “modest” internal targets had been set but much would depend on what response the business gets from charities. “The key will be whether charities will want to buy this new service and I think we’ll get those answers by the autumn,” he said.

He added that “more interesting than income targets is what the values are driven by”.

“To me, what Acevo Solutions has to be known for is firstly, solutions that are world-class and transformational, and that help the sector itself begin to find its own solutions, and second, that it is very bold, because I think it will need a degree of courage, for particularly charities, to start reshaping their future through a very difficult period.

“It is really important that Acevo does this at the moment because there is a certain amount of turmoil in the sector with all the public spending cuts.”

He said the reactions from the sector would be crucial: “What will be the needs that come out, for example will it be around spending reserves, or governance issues? I don’t know, I don’t know what’s keeping chief executives awake at the moment. It will be very interesting.”

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Directory: Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO)
Who's Who: Sir Stephen Bubb