Ben appoints two new directors to drive fundraising and impact
Howard Lake | 8 July 2026 | News
Automotive industry charity Ben has appointed two senior leaders as it looks to grow its income and reach more of the people it supports across the sector.
Luke Genevrier-Mallett joins as Director of Fundraising & Engagement, taking responsibility for the charity’s fundraising, marketing, brand and engagement work. He will focus on raising awareness, generating income and building longer-term financial sustainability so that Ben can support more automotive workers and their families.
Genevrier-Mallett brings more than two decades of senior experience in the charity sector. He has held leadership roles at Save the Children, the British Heart Foundation and Young Lives vs Cancer, and served as chief executive of a regional health charity. More recently he has worked internationally as a consultant and interim executive, supporting charities across the UK, Europe, the US and Africa on growth and transformation.
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Chris Easton joins as Director of Charitable Impact, providing strategic leadership across Ben’s support and specialist services. His focus is on maintaining high-quality health and wellbeing support for current and former automotive workers and their families. Easton has worked across the NHS, social care and the charity sector, including as Head of Person-Centred Care at NHS England and, most recently, Director of Strategy and Impact at NHS Charities Together.
Genevrier-Mallett said his role was to bring income generation, marketing and engagement into closer alignment and to make the case that “investing in Ben is investing in its own people”. Ben estimates that around four million people in the UK work, or have worked, in the automotive sector.
Rachel Clift, CEO of Ben, said the appointments came “at such a critical stage in our evolution”, adding that the pair brought “exceptional experience, inspiring leadership and a shared commitment to improving the lives of people in our automotive family”.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.