Sam Younger was chief executive of the Charity Commission from September 2010 to June 2014.

He has been chair of VSO since 2014. 

He has extensive experience of leadership in regulation, in public policy and in charity. His previous roles include founding chair of the Electoral Commission, director general of the British Red Cross, and managing director of the BBC World Service.

After leaving the Electoral Commission he was interim chief executive of the housing charity, Shelter, and also held interim roles with the educational charity Bell Educational Trust and with the Electoral Reform Society.

Younger is an independent member of the Greater London Authority Standards Committee and a director of Electoral Reform International Services. His previous non-executive roles include chair of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education and chair of Council at the University of Sussex.

The son of former Labour minister Kenneth Younger, Sam was appointed Commander of the British Empire in 2009. He is a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and holds a number of honorary and advisory roles in academia.