The City of London Corporation has appointed a new chief grants officer at the City Bridge Trust as Clare Thomas has decided to move on after 18 years in the role.

Thomas was the first chief grants officer at the charity, which makes grants to support London's bridge requirements, and has been responsible for the distribution of £291m across Greater London. She will leave the charity on 21 June to focus on a portfolio career, including a new as-yet undisclosed trusteeship and the continuing of her role on the BBC Appeals Committee.

The top role now goes to David Farnsworth, starting on 4 June. He is former head of the Refugee and Asylum Seeker Initiative at the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, which closed on New Year's Eve last year after 15 years of grantmaking following the Princess's death. Prior to his appointment to the fund in 2007 he was chief executive of the Welsh Refugee Council for three years and previously led the Immigration Advisory Service's central London office. He was educated in Law at Cambridge University.

Billy Dove, chairman of City Bridge Trust, said: "We are very pleased that David has accepted this position - he brings a huge amount of experience to City Bridge Trust and I look forward to working closely with him. Clare leaves a fantastic legacy, having established the Trust's reputation as a thoughtful and progressive funder. Her tireless energy and wealth of ideas will be sorely missed. In the last year alone, she has pioneered new programmes tackling youth unemployment, the greening of London's open spaces, social investment and a new City Philanthropy.”

The City Bridge Trust is the City of London Corporation's charity and provides grants of around £15m per year towards charitable work in Greater London. The charity, which can trace its origins back to 1097, built the city's Blackfriars Bridge and Tower Bridge and owns and maintains the Millennium Bridge.