Expansion to Australia Blamed for UK Executive Sacking
25 August 2008 at 1:28 pm
The British media is reporting that an argument among management and trustees of the Shaw Trust over plans to expand into Australia prompted the sudden dismissal of its chief executive.
The Shaw Trust is the largest voluntary sector provider of employment services for disadvantaged and disabled people in the UK.
Third Sector Daily reports that CEO Ian Charlesworth, was given six months notice and put on leave five days after warning trustees that the plans to expand to Australia amounted to excessive risk-taking and could jeopardise the charity’s reputation and finances.
It is also reported that Charlesworth urged the UK Charity Commission to investigate financial management, governance and the "unclear" roles of trustees and executives at the organisation he has led for 11 years.
The Shaw Trust, which gets disabled and disadvantaged people into work, is regarded as one of Britain’s most successful charities at winning contracts and receives most of its income from the Department for Work and Pensions.
Third Sector News reports that Tim Pape, director general of the trust, and John Briffitt, its chair, want the organisation to bid for welfare-to-work contracts in Australia.
Stephen Bubb, the head of the third sector chief executives organisation Acevo, is reported as being shocked and appalled at the peremptory action taken by the Shaw Trust trustees. He called for Charlesworth’s reinstatement.
The Shaw Trust was founded by Tim Pape, the current director-general, had an annual income last year of £70m, mostly derived from government contracts.
