Andrew Hind, former chief executive of the Charity Commission and current guest editor of Charity Finance, has been appointed chair of a new independent advisory panel set up to provide advice to the government as British Waterways makes the transition from public corporation to charitable body.

The panel will advise the Secretary of State for the Environment on the appointment of transition trustees to represent the interests of the new charity, and, in the future, sit on its board of trustees once it has been set up.

Other members on the panel include chair of Think Global, Roger Clarke; former director-general for environment in the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions and Defra, Dinah Nichols and independent consultant, Robin Ritzema.

On 14 October the government announced that it would be moving British Waterways in England and Wales from being a public corporation to a new charity – similar to a new ‘national trust’ for the waterways. The transition is to be completed by April 2012.