Mark Goldring, chief executive of Mencap, will leave the learning disability charity to join Oxfam GB in April.
In his new role, Goldring will lead Oxfam, which delivers development and humanitarian work in 55 countries. He will also continue the organisation’s work to bring the issues faced by the world’s poorest people to a global stage, including meeting government and business leaders to influence them to act against the causes of poverty.
Goldring has been chief executive of Mencap since 2008. In this time, he 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.
Prior to joining Mencap, Goldring worked as chief executive of and in the field for international development organisation VSO, as well as for the United Nations Development Programme, the UK’s Department for International Development and as Oxfam’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 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.”
