Chief executive and deputy chief executive
East Midlands-based mental health charity Shawmind has promoted its operations director to chief executive, with immediate effect. Peter Wingrove, who joined the charity in June 2019, has already helped the charity launch its Breathe community outreach programme.
He said: “We had big plans to expand our Breathe outreach services into more communities this year and we were in the process of securing grant funding to enable us to do this when the Covid-19 outbreak led to the nationwide lockdown.
“Thanks to the team and our supporters, we were quickly able to adapt our services so that we were able to continue offering support to the local community despite having to close our Breathe Café. Lockdown provided us with the impetus to open our services to people across the country using online platforms in a relatively short space of time.
“During lockdown we developed and began delivering professional mental health training to businesses, teachers and families. I believe that mental health and wellbeing training and support will help us foster a society in which mental health is more openly spoken about and in which we are all more supportive of one another’s wellbeing.”
Harriet Oppenheimer has been appointed as new deputy chief executive for Action on Hearing Loss. She has spent the majority of her career at PA Consulting and has been a partner there for over 10 years.
She is currently joint chair of the board of trustees for NNLS, a London community centre. She is also a volunteer for Refugees at Home, hosting refugees from Syria, Eritrea, Ethiopia at her home in North London, where she lives with her husband and three children.
Chief executive, Mark Atkinson said: “I am excited to start working with Harriet. Her exceptional experience as a senior leader across the health, government and non-for-profit sectors, combined with her personal beliefs and values, make her the ideal person to support me to lead our charity for the future.”
This is a new role for the charity and Oppenheimer will take up post in November.
Chair and board
Amref Health Africa UK’s board welcomed four new members at its quarterly meeting in August 2020.
They include Tinashe Chandauka, Simon Hammett, Beverley Jewell, and Bridie Layden.
Paul Davey, chair of trustees, said: “Each of them brings a unique set of skills, experience, and connections. Our interview panel was struck not just by their impressive career paths, but by their passion for sustainable health change that is community-driven and African-led. Tinashe, Simon, Beverley and Bridie share Amref UK’s vision, and our values.”
Chandauka, PhD, is an associate at Oxford Sciences Innovation, a private investment company that invests in breakthrough technologies developed by Oxford University. He is also a director of Circadian Therapeutics, an early stage biotechnology company.
Hammett spent most of his career in professional services with Deloitte LLP. Having retired from Deloitte in 2016, he now operates as an executive coach, academic and charity trustee.
Jewell has worked for more than 30 years in marketing, operations and sales roles in the pharmaceutical industry. The majority of her career has been at GSK where she is currently head of global vaccines commercial operations. Her journey with Amref began in 2014, when she took on a six-month placement in the Kenya office.
Layden is head of principal giving at Oxfam, where she helps philanthropists achieve positive social change. She is also a trustee for Human Story Theatre, a pop-up theatre company focusing on health and social care issues.
The Funding Network has appointed a new trustee.
Ofovwe Aig-Imoukhuede read Law at King's College London and holds an MBA from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics.
She sits on the board of the Africa Initiative for Governance, a not-for-profit founded to improve public sector performance in Nigeria, through collaborations with governments, academic institutions, and other partners. She is also the vice-chair of the board of The Ovie Brume Foundation.
Aig-Imoukhuede said: “I am joining the board of The Funding Network because I’m keen to support grass roots organisations. Having founded and run one such organisation, I know first-hand the positive impact they can make to the communities they serve.
“I am passionate about education projects and believe in the power of collective action to make a difference to the world.”
Comic Relief has announced that BBC Three Controller, Fiona Campbell, will be joining the board of trustees.
Campbell has a wealth of entertainment expertise that will be drawn upon when planning the charity’s high-profile Red Nose Day and entertainment-led fundraising campaigns. She leads content commissioning and strategy across BBC Three.
Campbell said: “I’m hugely excited to join Comic Relief and help this remarkable charity reach even greater success. Their unique ability to use the power of comedy, laughter and entertainment to help raise positive social change and raise millions for good causes is just brilliant. I already have many fun ideas for Red Nose Day 2021 so watch this space!”
Director
Comic Relief has also appointed Humanity and Inclusion’s UK chief executive Aleema Shivji, as the new executive director of impact and investment.
Shivji will be joining in January 2021 and will lead Comic Relief’s social change strategy and global philanthropic funding.
She has 20 years’ experience in the public sector and in international development including across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. She is stepping down as the UK chief executive of Humanity and Inclusion.
Shivji said: “Comic Relief's vision of a just world free from poverty strongly aligns with my values. As communities cope with the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, I am excited to help shape the future of their funding and ensure there is even greater impact with the vital, outstanding projects they support.”
The Victorian Society has announced Joe O’Donnell as its new director.
O’Donnell said: “ I am delighted to lead the Victorian Society into the new post Covid phase. All heritage charities have suffered during the crisis and funding to carry out our vital work is needed now as much as ever.”
He was previously head of policy at the Heritage Alliance where he worked with key heritage sector figures to lead on policy issues such as the revised National Planning Policy Framework. O’Donnell trained in law before writing for Thomson Reuters, he re-joins the Society from his role as Rail Freight Group’s head of policy. He has been the media officer for the charity.
The Youth Futures Foundation, the independent, not-for-profit organisation set up to help tackle youth unemployment, has appointed a new team to build the evidence base of what works to support young people into meaningful work.
The impact and evidence team will be led by director, Chris Goulden, who was previously deputy director of evidence and impact at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. He has led JRF’s influential poverty research agenda for nearly two decades.
He will be joined by Dr Jane Colechin, head of evidence and evaluation, who is a social researcher with a decade of experience working on high profile labour market, education and welfare reform evaluations and studies. Newly appointed head of research, Sope Otulana, joins Youth Futures from Oxford Policy Management where she was the Gender, Equity and Social Inclusion Lead.
Carers First has appointed two new directors to its team.
Andy Watts has taken on the new role of director of income and communications, he joins from Sue Ryder where he was head of trusts.
Sheryl Dago has been appointed in the new role of director of services, she joins from CHICKS where she was head of youth.
Both appointees began their new roles on 7 September.
This announcement comes seven months after the appointment of new chief executive, Alison Taylor, who is working with carers, trustees, staff and key stakeholders to develop a new three-year strategy at the charity.
Alzheimer’s Research UK has announced Dr Susan Kohlhaas as the charity’s new director of research.
Dr Kohlhaas will be responsible for developing Alzheimer’s Research UK’s research strategy to help bring about a life-changing dementia treatment in the next five years.
She joins Alzheimer’s Research UK with over a decade of experience in medical research charities, most recently as executive director of research and external affairs at the MS Society where she successfully designed and implemented the research strategy attached to their £100m Stop MS Appeal and led the charity’s work on a number of UK-based and international partnerships.
Dr Kohlhaas said: “I’m excited to join the UK’s leading dementia research charity and help make possible the breakthroughs people living with dementia desperately need.
“I’ve long admired the charity for its world class research programme, amazing partnerships and unrelenting focus on making progress for people with dementia. But also, like so many others, I have been personally affected by dementia and have seen the devastating impact it can have on families.
“There’s a fantastic research community committed to finding treatments and prevention strategies for people with dementia and I’m thrilled to be in a position to help drive progress. I’m feeling very optimistic about the future.”
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