07/12/11

By Andrew Holt

The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) has appointed the chief executive of a transformational social enterprise in north Yorkshire as its new director of Social Investment.

In her new role, Stephanie Sturrock will have responsibility for developing the full range of CAF’s social investment activities, including the ground-breaking CAF Venturesome and the recently launched CAF Social Impact Fund, all of which are designed to provide funding for charities, social enterprises and community groups where access to traditional finance proves difficult.

Sturrock was managing director of Shared Interest, where she developed this pioneering international social investment organisation from a founder-led start-up to an established, award-winning, sustainable ethical business.

With 8,500 individual investors, the £30m fund provided social finance to fair trade enterprises in developing countries, making a difference to the lives of thousands of people in poorer parts of the world.

Sturrock is currently chief executive of the social enterprise, Seachange, which under her leadership has helped to bring about a renaissance in the coastal towns of Scarborough and Whitby – securing the resources to deliver community hubs, which have provided vital facilities for thousands of local people.

The organisation has also secured the funding and community support for a new world-class £6m youth and community building, due to open next year.

Sturrock is also a non-executive director of NHS North Yorkshire and York, one of the biggest primary care trusts in the UK, serving a population of 800,000.

Sturrock will take up her new position with CAF on Monday 9 January – and will oversee the work of CAF Venturesome, which in the last 10 years has provided capital investment of £24m to 300 charities and social enterprises.

She will also lead the development of a range of new social investment funds and services including the recently launched CAF Social Impact Fund effectively the UK’s first retail risk capital fund.

Sturrock said she is ‘very excited’ by her new role at CAF. "I’m really looking forward to working with CAF and helping it to extend its social investment capability.

"This is a fantastic opportunity to help ensure that innovative charities get the high impact loan finance they need.

"One of my objectives will be to widen CAF’s social investment activities, to ensure that we continue to allow charities to access capital, where traditional sources of funding are not available to them."

Commenting on Sturrock’s appointment, CAF chief executive John Low, said: "I am confident that Stephanie will successfully build on the widely respected work of CAF Venturesome in the social investment market and continue its leadership as both a pioneering thinker and practitioner delivering significant social impact."

In her post, Sturrock will look to continue the work of CAF and the sector in building the social investment market, to ensure charities have access to an increasing range of financial options to fund their vital work.

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