Community Service Volunteers, the overall winner of this year's Charity Awards, has appointed Lucy de Groot to succeed Dame Elisabeth Hoodless as chief executive.

Lucy de Groot is currently independent chair of the Children's Services Improvement Board and has held previous jobs as director of public services at HM Treasury; executive director of the Improvement and Development Agency, and chief executive of Bristol City Council.  She also worked for ten years in the voluntary sector.

She will take up the post in February 2011, taking the reins from Dame Elisabeth who has spent the last 47 years at the organisation.

Hoodless was CSV's first employee when she was appointed assistant director in 1963. She became its executive director in 1986 and in 2004 was made a dame for services to volunteering.

At this year's Charity Awards, CSV's project Volunteers in Child Protection, which matches volunteers with troubled families, scooped the top prize.