John Stewart, chairman of Legal & General, has been appointed the new chairman of Guide Dogs from today.
Stewart has extensive senior management and business experience across a range of FTSE 100 companies and previous charity experience in Australia with an anti-bullying organisation called Alannah and Madeline.
He became chairman of Legal & General on 1 March 2010 and is a member of the Court of the Bank of England. Former roles include chief executive of Woolwich (1996-2000), deputy CEO of Barclays (2000-2003), chief executive of National Australia Bank (2004-2008) and non-executive director of Telstra Corporation (2008-11).
He was also a member of the Australian Prime Minister's Task Group on Emissions Trading, a member of the Australian Federal Attorney General's business-government advisory group on national security and a member of Scottish Enterprise's International Advisory Board.
Stewart steps into the post vacated by Tony Aston earlier this year. Aston had been due to step down at the 2012 AGM in July but brought this date forward due to ill health. Rodney Buse had been lined up to take the chair but he changed his mind in March following a disagreement over future strategy and resigned from the board soon after.
Deputy chairman Amos Miller stepped in to cover the post in the meantime and has remained interim chair until now.
Richard Leaman, chief executive of Guide Dogs, said of his new chair: “To have someone of John’s calibre and experience at the helm will be incredibly powerful as we reshape the organisation to enable thousands more blind and partially-sighted people to get out and about. I am really excited to be working with John, and feel that he will bring both strategic insight, and a fresh perspective, to the visual impairment sector in general, and to Guide Dogs in particular."
Stewart said he was “very excited” by the new strategy and “the ambition of the organisation to deliver new services that will transform lives”. He admitted he had a “great deal to learn” about the visual impairment sector and will be meeting service users, partner organisations and staff over the coming weeks.
