After more than six years at Age UK, where she has progressed from communications director to charity director general, Michelle Mitchell will join MS Society as chief executive from September.

Mitchell was part of the team that saw the formation of Age UK from the merger of Age Concern and Help the Aged in early 2010. She was appointed charity director at that point, a step up from the communications director role she held at Age Concern. Later she was appointed charity director general, a role she has held for the past year under the leadership of Tom Wright as CEO.

Her prior experience includes government affairs adviser at NSPCC and head of the Parliamentary Unit at Charter 88, a lobbying group advocating constitutional and electoral reform. In her new role, the trustees have charged her with "creating a clear vision for the next 20 years to ensure [the charity] meets its bold ambition to stop MS in our lifetimes".

Mitchell will take over from Patricia Gordon who is acting chief executive, and who will return to her role as director for Northern Ireland. Gordon stepped up to the role following the exit of Simon Gillespie in February when he joined the British Heart Foundation as CEO after over six years leading MS Society.

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