The Charity CEO Podcast

“You don't need to have all the answers, you don't need to have solutions... you just need to be able to listen.” Julie Bentley is CEO of Samaritans, the suicide prevention charity. In this episode Julie shares life and leadership lessons, from being a post-lady early in her career, to how she grappled with the gremlins of Imposter Syndrome. She highlights key qualities of leadership: emotional in...

“Our core purpose as charities isn’t to manage risk assessment and excel sheets ... our core purpose is to change the world, is to make change happen. That’s what we’re here for.” Paul Evans is CEO of Leadership Through Sport & Business, a social mobility charity that prepares and supports bright young people from disadvantaged backgrounds into roles with major firms.  In this episode Pau...

“Your job as a Trustee is to be a custodian of the higher purpose of the mission and vision of the organisation.” ‘Sexy’ is not normally a word one associates with charity governance. This conversation is about how the function of governance can be truly inspirational and what organisations can do to attract more diverse talent to their Trustee Boards.  My guest Sophie Livingstone has extensi...

“We are all born geniuses and the purpose of human life is to find an interface for that genius... and food can truly be the catalyst for that interface.” 3.5 BILLION meals and counting... Bhawani Singh Shekhawat is the Chief Executive of The Akshaya Patra Foundation UK. The Foundation started 20 years ago in India, to tackle the dual issues of classroom hunger and access to education for disadvan...

“The Chief Execs who I really admire are those who wear their heart on their sleeve and are open and honest and themselves.... they are their authentic selves... no matter where you see them and no matter who they are talking to, they are themselves.” In this episode, Part 2, of my conversation with Charlotte Hill, we talk about the joys and the challenges of having babies whilst being busy Chief...

“If we can get young people becoming Trustees and volunteers as young people, that’s when they form habits, and so they will then be volunteers and fundraisers and Trustees ... for the rest of their lives ... So it’s a great investment in our society more broadly and in civil society if we can get them engaged at a young age.” My guest this episode is Charlotte Hill, the founding CEO of Step Up To...

“There is a move away from the more traditional charity partnerships... (towards) a kind of main-streaming of responsible business.” In this episode I speak with Sarah Mitchell, CEO of Heart of the City, a charity working with small to medium sized companies to help them to develop a purpose beyond profit. We discuss the changing face of corporate partnerships; Scenario Planning amidst uncertainty...

“It cannot possibly be true that we have the best scientists working on blood cancer, if that scientific community only represents one bit of the population.” In Part 2 of our conversation with Gemma Peters, CEO of Blood Cancer UK, we delve in to what Diversity, Equity and Inclusion really means for the charity sector. Gemma shares the responsibility she feels being a white leader, with an all-whi...

“We do really need the government to acknowledge that this (research) investment is critical. It’s critical to patients, but it’s also critical to the UK as an entity. The UK’s strength in medical research is something that we are all so proud of.” In this very first episode of The Charity CEO Podcast we speak with Gemma Peters, CEO of Blood Cancer UK. In Part 1 of our conversation, we talk about...