When chief executives are involved in wrongdoing or serious maladministration, the mechanisms for trustees to remove them from post are clear and most charities will have processes to deal with this. Dealing with trustee, and particularly chair, wrongdoing, is far less clear-cut, says Peter Gorbing.

One of the CEO’s roles is to ensure trustees act in accordance with the charity’s governing documents and meet their regulatory requirements – the perfect check and balance.  The in-built assumption in the Charity Commission’s guidance is that trustees want to conduct their charity affairs properly and when things go wrong, it is purely the result of an oversight. But, what if the chair believes that regulation is something to be avoided, or directs the charity to their personal agenda regardless of trustees’ collective responsibility for decision-making? After all, some professionals from the private sector spend a lifetime advising clients on how to get around regulations. What if the chair refuses to accept charity regulation is any different from that of a company? Tensions will arise.