One of the Midlands leading hospices has created a combined trading company board for income generation to help fund increased demand for its services.
St Giles Hospice, based in Whittington, has appointed three new non-executive directors to join the newly created board.
St Giles Finance and Commercial director Bernard Kumeta said the decision to create the combined board was driven by the need to maximise revenue from existing revenue streams including shops, lottery and fundraising as well as exploring new opportunities.
“As a charity we need to innovate in the way we generate funds through traditional routes like our shops, lottery and community fundraising and to develop new channels to bring in income to meet costs of the increasing demand for our services,” he said.
“When we set out our five year strategy earlier this year, we identified an additional 1,000 people who could potentially benefit from hospice care in our area and that number is set to grow as the population ages.
“While a percentage of our costs are met through NHS contracts, we have an annual fundraising target of more than £9 million to reach and I look forward to working with the new board to explore creative, innovative and sustainable ways to do it.”
Joining the board alongside existing director Andrew Kightley are Toby Arrowsmith, Andrew Wilkinson and Richard Thomas.
Toby is a Director at Intrinsic Equity where he has invested in business turnaround opportunities since 2008 and currently holds non-executive director positions at Homes Caring for Autism, Laidlaw and Ham Baker.
Prior to Intrinsic Toby advised on corporate finance transactions at Orbis Partners and previously worked for both a Big 4 and a regional firm of Chartered Accountants. He a member of the Institute for Turnaround.
He was born in Sutton Coldfield and continues to live there with his wife and family.
He said: “St Giles has provided an exceptional care service to the local community for some time. The support that is afforded to individuals with serious illnesses and their families is invaluable. I am looking forward to helping the team expand their resource base and extend the reach of the care as much as possible to meet the ever increasing need that impacts us all.”
Andrew Wilkinson is Founding Partner and Managing Director of OWB in Birmingham and has worked in senior client-side positions for global brands including TNT and Blagden Industries Group and marketing agencies across the UK and overseas.
Andrew is a member of the Institute of Directors and in 2017 he was awarded ‘Director of the Year’ in the small business category in the 2017 IoD West Midlands Awards. He lives in Tixall with his family.
He said: “I have watched with fascination the growth of St Giles and the extraordinary work they do, when I was approached about a role to help shape and steer the trading business I was honoured and I look forward to providing any advice, knowledge and insights that will help the charity find new donors, supporters and evangelists so that St Giles can continue to do such amazing, critical and heartfelt work.”
Richard Thomas is a private equity professional at Palatine PE where he joined in December 2015 to head up the Midlands office. He has worked within the Midlands corporate finance market for over 13 years having held positions at Lloyds acquisition finance, private equity firm Key Capital Partners and Grant Thornton corporate finance. He is a qualified accountant with a degree from the London School of Economics and lives in Sutton Coldfield with his family.
He said: “I was delighted to take on the role at St Giles, having been impressed by the underlying commerciality despite it fundamentally being a charitable organisation.
“At Palatine we place a great emphasis on our Environmental, Social and Governance policy and so this role sits alongside that nicely and I hope to bring some of my own experience and knowledge to help further develop the already excellent operation there.
“It is also an exciting time at St Giles following the rebranding alongside some of the proposed new developments of the trading business. On a personal note St Giles gave great support to my family during my father’s last days which only made the decision to join easier.”
Andrew Kightley joined St Giles Hospice Shops board in 2007, and said he was delighted to be asked to continue as a Non-exec director on the combined trading board this year.
“It’s great to be able to put the experience I gained in industry into practise at St Giles. It’s an exciting team to work with, in a challenging sector – and the Hospice provides an incredible service to the community,” he said.
Andrew was appointed Managing Director of Swadlincote based Integrex in 2004. He retained the role at the company, which designs and manufactures educational and special needs products, retail systems and Instrumentation until he took semi-retirement in 2015. He now runs a technical consultancy partnership and lives in Lichfield.