Jonathan Jenkins, who is currently working on the Big Society Bank project, has been appointed by the Social Investment Business as its new CEO.

Jenkins will join the Social Investment Business at the end of September. He is currently on a secondment to the Big Lottery and Nesta working on the Big Society Bank project, which is piloting products which Big Society Capital (the new name for the Big Society Bank) could use.

He has over 15 years’ experience in raising finance for small and medium projects from his City career, which included time at a UK merchant bank, and culminated in his role as managing director of Plus Markets, a stock exchange created by his family to enable access to capital for small companies. Jenkins joined UnLtd, which supports social entreprenuers, in September 2008 as director of ventures.

He said: “This is a really exciting time to be joining the Social Investment Business, with where the market is going there are lots of opportunities in the social investment market and the Social Investment Business is ideally placed to develop these both on its own and in partnership.

"I am very grateful for the great opportunity I have had at UnLtd and am sure that in my new role there will be on-going opportunities to work together.”

Nick O’Donohoe, chief executive of Big Society Capital, added: “I welcome Jonathan’s appointment as CEO of the Social Investment Business. The experience he brings from his work at UnLtd will be enormously valuable at the Social Investment Business and for the social investment sector as a whole.”