The Refugee Council has appointed Shān Nicholas as interim chief executive, while it undertakes its search for a permanent successor to Donna Covey who left last month.

Nicholas, who will join the charity on 24 September 2012, has run her own interim management and consultancy business, Lasting Transformation, since 2007.

During this time she has held a number of interim chief executive and director roles, most recently at the Children’s Society, the British Institute of Human Rights and the Child Poverty Action Group.

Her most recent permanent CEO role was at the Princess Royal Trust for Carers, a job she held for nearly three years until September 2007.

Previous employers have also included the College for Social Work, the Barrow Cadbury Trust, YMCA, Brook London and the Runnymede Trust.

Nicholas replaces Donna Covey who left the Refugee Council “by mutual consent” on 31 August 2012 after more than five years in the job.

Douglas Board, chair of the Refugee Council, said that Nicholas’ skills and expertise leading charitable organisations, and her experience of issues facing the most marginalised people in society, will be a “powerful asset” to the charity while it searches for a permanent CEO.