Who’s Moving — June 2026 A monthly look at leadership transitions across the charity sector.

This month’s movements divide into two categories. The first is internal succession done well — organisations promoting from within, or confirming what was already in front of them. The second is external hires that signal a change of direction, not just a change of personnel. Both tell you something about how a board is thinking.

The internal appointments

The most telling moves this month are the ones that weren’t really appointments at all — they were confirmations.

Emily Cherrington becomes permanent CEO of the King’s Foundation having served as acting chief executive and been part of the organisation since 2017. Claire Hoyle is confirmed permanently at BBC Children in Need after serving as interim since December. Laura Brady steps up to CEO at Worldwide Cancer Research having previously led its marketing and fundraising function — and its global rebrand.

Three different organisations. Three different sectors within the charitable space. The same underlying logic: the board looked at what they had, ran a process rigorous enough to trust it, and appointed accordingly.

That outcome is undervalued. There is a persistent assumption in the sector that the right answer to a senior vacancy is always someone from outside — fresh eyes, new energy, different network. Sometimes that is true. But internal appointments made well tend to land faster, carry more organisational credibility, and lose less institutional knowledge in the handover. The question is whether the process was rigorous enough to make the decision defensible — or whether the board simply promoted the person standing closest to the door.

The difference matters. Not just for the appointment, but for what it signals to everyone else watching inside the organisation.

The long-tenured departures

Seb Elsworth leaves Access after more than a decade to become the first permanent CEO of the Queen Elizabeth Trust — a £40m government-backed organisation at the start of its life. Phil Kerry steps down from New Horizon Youth Centre after eight years.

Both are exits from roles they built significantly. Both leave their organisations mid-transition: Access moves to an interim CEO while a permanent successor is found, New Horizon to its current COO while a search begins.

The pattern is familiar. Long-serving leaders tend to leave when the next chapter of the organisation’s story requires a different kind of energy than the one that built it. That is not a criticism — it is often the most self-aware thing a leader can do. The harder question is what the board does next: whether they recruit for what the organisation has been, or for what it needs to become.

The external hires worth watching

Stuart Beamish joins the British Red Cross as executive director for income generation and marketing, arriving from Saga, British Airways, and Barclaycard. Mike Davis takes the CEO role at Green Alliance in September, coming from Global Witness where he spent 23 years.

Both bring private sector or campaigning credibility into roles that will require it. Beamish’s appointment in particular — commercial marketing experience into a major fundraising function — reflects a conversation the sector has been having for several years about whether fundraising income can be grown at scale without importing some of the discipline that commercial organisations apply to customer acquisition and retention. The British Red Cross is big enough to find out.

The board appointments

Kristina Murrin becomes chair elect at Parkinson’s UK, bringing a background that spans the King’s Foundation CEO role and senior advisory work at Downing Street. Jacky Wright joins the ODI board as a non-executive director — former McKinsey CTO, more than 30 years in digital transformation, joining a board that includes Tim Berners-Lee and Nigel Shadbolt.

Both appointments signal boards that are thinking about where their organisations need to go, not just who has the right sector credentials. That is not always how trustee recruitment works. When it does, it tends to show.

What this month suggests

The clearest thread running through June is confidence — or the absence of it. Organisations that confirmed internal candidates did so because they trusted what they had. Organisations bringing in external leaders from outside the sector are betting that the skills transfer. Both can be right. Both can also be wrong.

The boards making these decisions are the ones who will find out which.