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

July’s movements are quieter in volume than some months but carry their own patterns. The thread running through them is tenure — organisations saying goodbye to leaders who have shaped them over many years, and the question of what comes next when someone who has genuinely built something finally steps back.

The long-tenured departures

Caroline Mason leaves Esmée Fairbairn Foundation after 13 years as chief executive. During that time she broadened the foundation’s remit significantly — moving beyond traditional grant-making to work with regulators, investors and academics — while growing its social investment fund from £26m to £60m. That’s a substantial legacy and a hard act to follow. The foundation will share recruitment details in coming weeks.

Marianne Steele steps down from The Donkey Sanctuary after 16 years with the charity, four as CEO. Her reason for leaving is personal rather than professional — family illness and loss, and a recognition that the role’s demands and her family’s needs had reached a point of tension. That honesty is worth noting. Senior leaders in the charity sector rarely cite personal circumstances openly, and there’s something important about a sector that values that kind of transparency when it happens.

Ewan Aitken leaves Cyrenians after 12 years leading the Scottish homelessness prevention charity. Three long-serving leaders departing in the same month across three very different organisations. The pattern is familiar — people who have carried significant responsibility for a long time, making considered decisions about what comes next.

The internal appointments

Simon Latham becomes permanent managing director of City Bridge Foundation having served as acting managing director for two years, and chief operating officer before that. Another confirmation rather than an appointment — a board that looked carefully at what it had and decided the answer was already in the room. As with the internal appointments that stood out in June, the question worth asking is whether the process was rigorous enough to make the decision defensible. In Latham’s case, two years in the acting role suggests it probably was.

Joyce Idoniboye steps up to deputy CEO at Oxfam GB, combining it with her existing chief people officer role until March 2027. She previously served as acting CEO before Richard Hawkes joined as interim chief executive. The combination of roles is unusual and the timeline is specific — worth watching to see how that transition develops over the coming months.

The external hires worth watching

Tiger de Souza joins Macmillan Cancer Support as chief people and culture officer, arriving from Samaritans where he was executive director of people and culture, and before that five years at the National Trust. An MBE for services to volunteering sits alongside serious experience in large and complex organisations. People and culture leadership at the scale of Macmillan is a significant brief — particularly at a moment when the sector is grappling with workforce retention and wellbeing in ways that aren’t going away.

Luke Genevrier-Mallett joins automotive industry charity Ben as director of fundraising and engagement, bringing a background spanning Save the Children, British Heart Foundation and Young Lives vs Cancer. The appointment signals an organisation thinking seriously about income growth and what it takes to achieve it at scale.

The board appointments

Lord Guy Black of Brentwood becomes chair of Terrence Higgins Trust, announced on the 44th anniversary of Terry Higgins’ death — the first named person to die of an AIDS-related illness. His comment that much of THT’s work happens in private, in counselling rooms and peer support settings, and that it needs to be better known, frames his role clearly. A chair who arrives with a communications agenda as well as a governance one is an interesting appointment.

Kathryn Tomlinson takes the chair at Greenpeace UK, arriving from the deputy secretary general role at Amnesty International. Her observation that boards need to provide structure that allows organisations to aim high and take risks is a more candid framing of the trustee role than most chair appointments produce. Worth remembering when Greenpeace’s next significant campaign lands.

What this month suggests

July’s departures cluster around a particular kind of exit — considered, values-led, and in several cases openly personal. That’s not nothing in a sector where senior leaders often leave under ambiguous circumstances or with carefully worded statements about pursuing new opportunities. The organisations losing these leaders face the same question that recurs every month: whether they recruit for what they have been, or for what they need to become.