New Chief Executive Officer

We are pleased to announce that Simon Holmes will be our new Chief Executive Officer. He will be starting with us on April 4^th. He sent us a message to give some background about himself:

"I live just a short journey away in Knaresborough with my wonderful wife Claire and son Hayden. His favourite place on earth is the National Railway Museum and so York is our destination of choice and has been a place I have known and loved since I was a child and one I cannot wait to support further with you all.

I am joining from the British Red Cross where I started as a volunteer in one of our shops and 14 years later have most recently been our Area Director leading our local health and crisis response work. I have also had been fortunate enough to work with the Cabinet Office and local Government as well as having worked together in partnership with so many wonderful organisations, including a number of our Age UK colleagues across the country.

I have ever been motivated to give all I can to help others and to do so as part of a team where we come together in realising our shared goals to meet needs – as we are so tragically again seeing amidst the awful events in Ukraine. Sadly the needs we see across the UK, and I am sure here in York too, are only ever increasing and becoming more complex. The importance of Age UK and other wonderful voluntary and community organisations is needed more than ever and it really excites me to join you in our story and what we can achieve together."

We look forward to Simon joining the team at Age UK York and in leading us through the recovery after Covid and through the challenges that lay ahead.