As director of fundraising at Cancer Research UK, Richard Taylor is unapologetic about wanting to grow all channels and activity. His department is known for its ambition and innovation, with voluntary income up £30m to £490m in 2013/14. Recently elected chair of the Institute of Fundraising, he is approaching the world of self-regulation with the same drive and ambition.

Why did you decide to apply for the role of IoF chair?

I’d been on the board for three years and I had views on what I wanted to see at the IoF. I had just stepped down from being the chair of a small charity (the Neuro Foundation), and I rather enjoyed it, so I was looking for another opportunity. When I spoke to our CEO Harpal Kumar about releasing some time he was really supportive on the basis that as the largest charity we need to support the sector as well. I think I’m going to learn a lot through it. I think there’s an onus on large charities in particular, to take a leadership position. To avoid having the same, old usual suspects we need to be encouraging emerging leaders to get involved as well. The sector does, I think, have a small group of people whose names you come across frequently and I think we need to be feeding a pipeline of future leaders. There’s got to be a role in showing people you can have fun and effect change.