UKCF announces appointment of new CEO at conference

UK Community Foundations (UKCF) has announced the appointment of Emma de Closset as its new Chief Executive Officer.  The appointment was unveiled during the UKCF’s in-person conference.

Emma will assume her role in January 2025, succeeding interim C0-CEOs Ben Robinson and Kaveed Ali, who have led the organisation for the past five months.

Emma de Closset brings a wealth of experience from the private, public and voluntary sectors.  She began her career as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group in NYC, working with a range of Fortune 500 companies on strategy and implementation. 

Emma moved back into the UK in 2014 as Director of Strategy for National Citizen Service, working with hundreds of partners around the country to engage young people in their communities and provide valuable life skills.

Since then, Emma has held a range of senior roles in central government, including Chief Operating Officer for the UK’s G7 Presidency (2021) and Prime Minister’s Deputy Representative for the first global AI Safety Summit (2023).

Speaking about her new appointment, Emma said: “I am delighted to have been chosen as UKCF’s next Chief Executive, and I feel honoured to have this opportunity to champion the fantastic work of community foundations.  I am excited to help grow and deepen the impact that our network has in every postcode of the UK.  Now more than ever, our communities face complex challenges, and I look forward to working with the UKCF team, our members and partners to build a more resilient and inclusive future for everyone.”

UKCF is a network of 47 accredited community foundations, covering every nation and region in the UK.  With a shared commitment to tackling local issues, the network distributed over £170 million last year to support over 40,000 grassroots community-led projects.

Reflecting on the new CEO’s appointment, Andrew Tuggey, Chair of UKCF, said: “We are thrilled that Emma is coming to join us in the new year. We were very keen that community foundations had the opportunity to have input into the selection process, and I am delighted to say that Emma won the overwhelming backing of our diverse network of Chairs and Chief Executives.  I know they will all give her their full support when she takes up her new role.  She has an infectious passion for place-based philanthropy and volunteering, and we know that she will bring her considerable experience to bear for the benefit of the whole network.”

UKCF’s bi-annual in-person conference took place on 8th, 9th and 10th October, and brought together over 300 delegates from the UK and internationally in Harrogate to explore the future of philanthropic community investment. 

Guests were informed of Emma’s appointment and had the opportunity to welcome her at an evening function hosted by UKCF’s headline sponsor CCLA Investment Management.

UKCF’s conference, ‘Foundations for the future: Investing in communities’ was also sponsored by Cazenove Capital, Evelyn & Partners and Evouchers, and was attended by guests from the UKCF network, European Community Foundation Initiative, as well as a contingency of international guests from South America, Africa and Northern America, of whom travel was sponsored by the Mott Foundation. 

Foundations for the Future featured speakers from various areas of philanthropy and civil society, including Indy Johar from Dark Matters Lab. 

Indy talked about civic responsibility and the important position community foundations are in to invest in civic change from the grass roots to Government: 

“I’m advocating for society.  [Community foundations] are the means to deliver the Treasury’s mission.  That mission has a shared outcome.  The Treasury can’t do what you do.”

Delegates at the UKCF conference also heard about the meaningful role Community Foundations for Lancashire and Merseyside played in supporting the immediate and longer-term needs of the directly affected individuals and families of the Southport knife attack in July this year.   The community foundation combined multiple local fundraising efforts to ensure the funds reached their intended destinations safely and legally, helping those affected in the tragedy.

CEO Rae Brooke said, “The messages we received from the families directly, and from the schools and community, have just been heart warming.  For all the trials and tribulations in regards to the weight of responsibility, when you start receiving those messages back, you know the team has done their job.”

The conference ended with recognition from interim Co-CEOs Ben Robinson and Kaveed Ali.  They thanked the 60 international delegates who had travelled from far and wide to share knowledge and learn from the UK network's best practices, as well as the UKCF team who have worked hard to deliver an engaging and forward-thinking body of content. 

Kaveed Ali said: "We're in a period of change, but the values we have and the way we want to work are in the fabric of who we are at UK Community Foundations.  We will endeavour to put communities first now and in the future."  

You can learn more about the content in our conference by reading the full agenda here.