New Board Members at The Felix Project, plus more sector movers
Melanie May | 30 April 2024 | News
Recent appointment news from around the charity sector, including a host of new Trustees at The Felix Project, senior hires at Female Lead, and more.
Royal Society for Blind Children appoints entrepreneur Simon Ward as Trustee
The Royal Society for Blind Children (RSBC), a UK charity which supports blind and partially sighted children and young people and their families, has appointed technology entrepreneur Simon Ward as a Board Trustee.
Ward, who founded global marketing technology company Inspired Thinking Group (ITG), will work with Julie Davis, CEO and the board to further expand the services that the RSBC offers, as well as provide strategic guidance on its expansion. ITG currently works with some of the world’s most recognisable brands including PUMA, Boots, KFC, Heineken, M&S and Audi.
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The Female Lead announces two new senior hires
The Female Lead has hired Beverley Brown as Commercial Director and Louise Ridley as Editorial Director. Brown will focus on building partnerships and additional funding to The Female Lead’s commercial arm to help expand its reach and impact. Ridley will be responsible for The Female Lead’s audience, designing its narrative and shaping the conversations and campaigns it leads, while managing its team of content creators, ambassadors and volunteer influencers. Both Brown and Ridley started their new positions on 29 April.
Brown co-founded consultancy Nicoll Curtin in 1999. She previously established consultancy Kenbury Associates, and played a pivotal role in establishing The Emerging Markets Charity for Children. She sits on the management board of Women in Banking & Finance, and founded Stronger Together, the first cross-industry gender equality collaboration, which launched in March. Ridley is an award-winning journalist who has held senior roles at the BBC, HuffPost and BuzzFeed, and worked at national magazines and newspapers. She was most recently Business Insider’s first features editor outside of the US. She co-founded The Second Source, a network that paired over 200 women journalists from underrepresented backgrounds with mentors. In 2023 she was part of the Online News Association’s Women’s Leadership Accelerator for leaders pushing digital innovation.
The Felix Project appoints three new Board Members with one more to follow
The Felix Project has welcomed three new members to its Board of Trustees, with one further Trustee to be appointed later this year.
The Felix Project has appointed Matt Birch the UK Country Manager at Amazon Fresh, which supplies The Felix Project with food. Birch worked previously as Director at Sainsburys and Central England Co-operative. Paul Drechsler CBE is an experienced business leader. He is the current president of SCI®, a Non-Executive Director of Schroders & Co. and Chairman of International Chamber of Commerce UK. He is also the former chair at BusinessLDN. Adam Park is the CEO of Hello Fresh UK: another long-term supplier of surplus food and Felix partner. The new trustees bring an extensive range of skills and expertise across many areas including the food industry, income generation, health & safety and public policy: vital sectors within the work of The Felix Project.
Crowe appoints Helen Blundell as partner in Social Purpose and Non Profit team
Audit, tax, advisory and risk firm Crowe has appointed Helen Blundell as a partner in its Social Purpose and Non Profit team. Blundell joins the partnership with more than 20 years of experience and the ICAEW Diploma in Charity Accounting (DChA). She works closely with a diverse range of clients from local charities to organisations operating nationally and internationally. Having joined Crowe in 2023 as a Director RI (Responsible Individual), her experience spans audits, independent examinations, and advisory.
Blundell’s advisory work has included governance reviews, corporate structures, and registration support across a range of sub-sectors, including faith-based groups, heritage charities, health and welfare, education, and art organisations.
Pennies appoints Lori Cunningham as Chief Partner Officer
Lori Cunningham joined Pennies in the role of Chief Partner Officer on 24 April. Having previously held senior roles at Vodafone, Countrywide and Telegraph Media Group, Cunningham brings experience across digital transformation, strategy, business development and brand management to the Pennies team, where she will oversee the Partnership function. She is also a Non-Executive Director at London Marathon Events, a Trustee at NEBOSH and was Vice Chair and a Trustee of The Makaton Charity until 2023.
Current Chief Partner Officer, Paul Seaman, has announced his semi-retirement and will be stepping down from his full-time leadership role at the end of June 2024, while remaining with Pennies in a part-time capacity as a key strategic and relationship advisor going forward.
Former Mayor of Barranquilla, Colombia becomes Executive Director of Breathe Cities
Jaime Pumarejo, former Mayor of Barranquilla, Colombia, will be the new Executive Director of Breathe Cities, a partnership between Bloomberg Philanthropies, Clean Air Fund, and C40 Cities, which supports cities around the world to cut their air pollution and climate emissions. The announcement follows Breathe Cities’ expansion beyond its pilot programmes in Warsaw and London, to cities including Accra, Brussels, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Milan, Nairobi, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, and Sofia.
Pumarejo will lead the programme after serving as Mayor of Barranquilla between 2020-23, earning national recognition for steering the city through the COVID-19 crisis and establishing it as a model for sustainable and inclusive urban development. He served as Colombia’s Housing and Urban Development Minister in President Juan Manuel Santos’ government in 2017.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.