In this section...

Board of Commissioners and Directors' Group

Management of the Commission today

Governance responsibilities for strategy and future direction of the Commission rest with its Board of non-executive members of the Commission. Corporate decision making that affects the day-to-day operation of the Commission is delegated to the Executive Group. This group is chaired by the Chief Executive and includes the four Directors and key Heads of Functions. The Directors are responsible for Charity and Legal Services, Policy and Effectiveness, Corporate Services and Charity Information. The Directors’ duties include implementing the programmes and policies arising from the Board and ensuring effective service delivery.

The Board is supported by an Audit Committee and a Civil Service Pay Committee. The Directors are each supported by committees comprising their own senior staff together with representatives of other key parts of the organisation.

Board of Commissioners

Chair

Dame Suzi Leather

Dame Suzi Leather joined the Charity Commission as Chair in August 2006.

Suzi has a long-standing relationship with the third sector, first volunteering over 20 years ago for Age Concern. The majority of her career has been spent in the consumer movement, working at regional, national and European levels, but her commitment to the third sector has always been apparent through her volunteer work and community projects.

Suzi has broad professional experience. Most recently she was Chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, and the School Food Trust. Previously Suzi chaired the Exeter and District Community NHS Trust as well as the Health Forum, designed to promote the public health agenda in the local area. She was the first Deputy Chair of the Food Standards Agency and a member of the Royal Society’s Inquiry into Infectious Diseases of Livestock. In the 2006 New Year’s Honours list she was made a Dame of the British Empire.

Suzi's academic background is in politics, social work and probation. Her particular interests include food policy, nutrition and poverty, the needs of low-income consumers and the impact of European policies on UK consumers. She chairs DEFRA's Council of Food Policy Advisers

Simon Jones

Simon Jones joined as a Member of the Commission in July 2007. With his extensive knowledge and experience of the charity sector in Wales, Simon fulfilled the Charities Act 2006 requirement for such knowledge to be represented on the Commission’s Board. Simon is Head of Public Sector, Wales for the executive search company, Odgers Berndtson. Until the end of 2008 he was Chair of Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust. For 10 years he was Chief Executive of the Wales co-operative Centre. He is a former Chair of the Independent Commission to review the National Assembly for Wales’ Voluntary Sector Scheme. He also chaired the Communities First Support Network and has wide media experience, including having been a presenter for Radio Wales.

Irene Khan - Picture coming soon

Irene Khan is an internationally reknowned expert on human rights and humanitarian issues. She was Secretary General of Amnesty International from August 2001 until December 2009. As the first woman and Asian to head the global human rights organization, Irene expanded Amnesty's work on women's human rights and economic and social rights, launching global campaigns to stop violence against women, and to end human rights abuses that drive and deepen poverty. From 1980 - 2001 Irene worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She is currently the Chancellor of Salford University, and sits on the boards of a number of human rights and development organizations in the UK and abroad. She was a founding member of the International NGO Accountability Charter and the Berlin Civil Society Centre. Irene studied law at the University of Manchester and Harvard Law School, USA.

John Knight

John Knight is Director of Policy and Campaigns at Leonard Cheshire Disability - a charity supporting disabled people nationally and internationally. John worked in the Department of Health and Local Government before joining the Third Sector. He was on the Steering Group of the Treasury’s 2002 Cross-Cutting Review of the Voluntary and Community Sector and Convenor of the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group. He was also a Commissioner for the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) and until recently a Council member of the General Social Care Council and a member of the DWP’s Office of Disability Issues Management Board. Currently he is a member of the Third Sector Advisory Board at the Cabinet Office. John is also a Magistrate and has served in the past as a Trustee for a number of Charities. He has a lifelong impairment.

Sharmila Nebhrajani

Sharmila Nebhrajani joined as a Member of the Commission in July 2007. Sharmila is currently Director of Finance and Investment, NHS East Sussex Downs and Weald, NHS Hastings and Rother, Deputy Chair at the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority, member of the Human Tissue Authority and a member of the Olympic Lottery Distributor. She is also a qualified chartered accountant and a member of the ICAEW.

Dr Andrew Purkis OBE

Dr Andrew Purkis OBE joined as a Member of the Commission in July 2007. Andrew was until April 2009 Chief Executive of the Tropical Health and Education Trust and formerly the Chief Executive of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, Secretary for Public Affairs for the Archbishop of Canterbury and National Director for the Council for the Protection of Rural England. He is currently Chair of ActionAid UK.

Theo Sowa

Theo Sowa joined as a Member of the Commission in July 2007. Theo is an independent advisor working on a wide range of international issues with a focus on social development and children and youth issues. Her work covers evaluation, facilitation, policy and organisational development with a range of international and intergovernmental organizations and grant making foundations, including UNICEF, Stephen Lewis Foundation, African Women’s Development Fund, DFID, UNDP, amongst others.

Simon Wethered

Simon Wethered joined as a Member of the Commission in July 2007 and is one of the Commission’s two legally-qualified Members. Simon is a legal consultant specialising in charities with Charles Russell LLP and was formerly a partner there. He has 37 years experience as a solicitor, nine specialising in charity work. He is a member of the Charity Law Association, associate member of the Charity Finance Directors' Group and co–editor of Butterworth's Charity Law handbook.

John Wood

John Wood joined the Commission on 1 February 2008 and is one of the two legally-qualified Members of the Commission. John is a consultant with Herbert Smith LLP.

He was a partner of the firm for 25 years and headed up its Trust and Charities practice.

He is a member of the Charity Law Association and the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP). He is a founder and committee member of the Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists (ACTAPS).

He is also an executive member of the Trust Law Committee and a CEDR qualified mediator.

Independent member of the audit committee

Christopher Daws

Christopher Daws has been the independent member of the audit committee since August 2009.

Until 2007, Christopher was the financial and deputy secretary of the Church Commissioners for England. He has been treasurer of a major parish church. He is a trustee of Action for Children and chairman of the Action for Children Pension Fund. He is on the management committee of the Charity Investors’ Group. He is also a member of the Board for Actuarial Standards, an operating body of the Financial Reporting Council.

Christopher is a chartered accountant and a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and the Association of Corporate Treasurers.

Directors' Group

Chief Executive

Andrew Hind

Andrew Hind, formerly chief operating officer of the BBC World Service, joined the Charity Commission as its first chief executive in 2004.

Andrew has extensive experience of working with the charity sector. He was a senior executive with ActionAid (1986-1991) and Barnardo's (1992-1995) before moving to the BBC in 1995. Andrew has also served as a trustee of several major charities, including VSO, the UK Committee for UNICEF, the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund and a number of smaller charities in his local community in North London.

Andrew was co-founder in 1988 of the Charity Finance Directors' Group (CFDG) - an organisation promoting excellence in financial management for charities. He was Chair of CFDG from 1992-1994. He is the author of ‘The Governance and Management of Charities’, and a former judge of the National Charity Awards. Andrew received the Outstanding Achievement Award for long-standing commitment and service to the voluntary sector at the Charity Awards 2008.

The Directors

Nick Allaway

Nick Allaway joined the Commission as Executive Director, Charity Information and Corporate Services early in 2004. Previously he was Director of Finance for six years at the New Opportunities Fund (now the Big Lottery Fund). Nick is responsible for managing the Commission's Finance, Human Resources, IT and Facilities Management services. In earlier careers he worked in various management roles in central government in departments as diverse as Culture, Media and Sport, Cabinet Office and Environment. He is a qualified accountant.

Rosie Chapman

Rosie Chapman is Executive Director of Policy and Effectiveness at the Charity Commission, with responsibility for leading the Commission’s policy developments, its charity effectiveness and partnership work, strategic planning and corporate affairs activities.

Prior to joining the Commission in 2001, Rosie spent six years at the Housing Corporation in a variety of roles culminating as Assistant Director (Regulation Policy). In the past she has worked for New Islington & Hackney Housing Association, acting as company secretary for a number of charitable organisations, and in local government.

Rosie is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a board member of Homes for Haringey.

Kenneth Dibble

Kenneth Dibble is Executive Director, Legal and Compliance. Kenneth has responsibility for the provision and overall management of the Commission’s legal services and Compliance and Support function. He also has responsibility for the Commission’s customer services and for its International Programme.

Kenneth has over twenty years experience of charity law and regulation gained with the Commission. His previous career was in banking and insurance.

A barrister by profession, Kenneth is also an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.

David Locke

David Locke is Executive Director of Charity Services, with responsibility for the provision and overall management of the Commission’s one-to-one services to charities, including Charity Commission Direct, Registration, Specialist Casework Division and Large Charities.

David joined the Commission in 2002 as a lawyer before moving to Head of Charity Services in 2005 and his current post in September 2007.

David is a qualified solicitor and prior to working at the Commission, he spent over ten years working in advice centres managing the delivery of services to the public.

The Structure

The Chair of the Charity Commission and the Chief Executive were appointed in August 2006 and October 2004 respectively prior to the passing of the Charities Act 2006 which brought in the corporate Commission.

From 16 July 2007, the Minister for the Third Sector appointed further members of the Commission up to the maximum (as set out in the Charities Act 2006) of nine members - eight members of the Commission and the Chair.

The Commission has the general function of promoting the effective use of charitable resources by:

encouraging the development of better methods of administration;
giving charity trustees information or advice on any matter affecting the charity; and
investigating and checking abuses.

Some of the powers exercisable by the Commission under the Charities Act 1993 as amended by the Charities Act 2006 are also exercisable by the Court.

The members of the Commission have overall responsibility for the strategic direction and work of the Commission. They have a range of functions including taking decisions on major cases. In practice, authorised officers acting under delegated powers exercise most of the powers of the Charity Commission.