Oxfam names Mencap’s Mark Goldring as new chief executive

Thursday 03 January 2013

Mencap chief executive will join Oxfam GB in April 2013

Mark Goldring has been announced as the new chief executive of Oxfam GB, one of the most high profile roles in international development.

Goldring will be leading an internationally renowned organisation which delivers development and humanitarian work in over 55 countries, has an annual income of more than £385m and employs nearly 5,000 paid staff and 22,000 volunteers in the UK and overseas. He will also continue Oxfam’s work to bring the issues faced by the world’s poorest people to a global stage, meeting high level government and business leaders to influence them to act against the causes of poverty.

Since 2008, Goldring has been chief executive of Mencap, the UK's leading disability charity, which employs 7,500 staff and works to improve the lives of the UK’s 1.5 million people with a learning disability and their families. In this time, Goldring has led the continued growth of Mencap’s support services and positioned the charity as a leading influencer on national disability and social care policy. Goldring also forged the ongoing development of the federation of 600 local Mencaps.

Prior to this role he has decades of experience within international development both as chief executive of VSO, and in the field for VSO, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and asOxfam's country director in Bangladesh in the early 1990s.

Karen Brown, Chair of Oxfam GB, said:

“A golden thread that runs through Mark's career is his commitment to inclusiveness and to tackling injustice.

“He brings great leadership and management experience.  We recognised him as a practical visionary – the personification of Oxfam – with the ability to reach for the huge changes needed to tackle issues of global poverty, while ensuring effective, practical solutions. We are very excited that he is joining Oxfam.”

Goldring read law at Oxford and has a Masters in social policy and planning in developing countries from London School of Economics. He was awarded a CBE in 2008 for services to tackling poverty and disadvantage.

Goldring said:

“I am excited and humbled to be joining – or I should say rejoining – Oxfam in this role. I have loved my work with Mencap and would have left it now for no other job. But to lead Oxfam is an honour and an opportunity too important to resist. My commitment is to build on all that is strong in Oxfam and to support the development of the organisation and its work to make an even greater impact on poverty and injustice.”

Mencap's chairman, Jim Glover said:

"Mark has made a huge contribution to Mencap over the last 4 years, and has substantially raised the profile of Mencap and learning disability in that time. We are all extremely sorry to see him go, but we understand why the Oxfam role pulls him back to international work, and this is the right job to lose him to. We wish him the best of luck. 

“His are big shoes to fill, and our challenge now is to find someone capable of taking Mencap to the next level.”  

Goldring will join Oxfam during April 2013. Current chief executive, Dame Barbara Stocking, will be stepping down in February, after nearly 12 years in the role.

ENDS

For more information, please contact Pasca Lane in the Mencap media team on 020 7696 6017 or email pasca.lane@mencap.org.uk

·        About Mencap

There are 1.5 million people with a learning disability in the UK. Mencap fights on their behalf, and on behalf of their carers and families, to change laws and improve services and access to education, employment and leisure facilities, supporting thousands of people with a learning disability to live their lives the way they want.

We are also the largest service provider of services, information and advice for people with a learning disability across England, Northern Ireland and Wales. See www.mencap.org.uk for more information.

·        About learning disability

A learning disability is caused by the way the brain develops before, during or shortly after birth. It is always lifelong and affects someone's intellectual and social development. It used to be called mental handicap but this term is outdated and offensive. Learning disability is NOT a mental illness. The term learning difficulty is often incorrectly used interchangeably with learning disability.