PBE chief executive Matt Whittaker is leaving the charity sector focused think tank to take up a newly created role at the Nuffield Foundation.

He is joining the grant maker as executive director for research, grants and programme, which the Foundation says will be a “key role in shaping and delivering” its research priorities, as well as leading its grants and programmes team and liaising with its leadership.

Whittaker will join the Foundation, which funds research and projects aimed at improving social well-being, later this month after seven years with PBE.

Prior to joining PBE, which was formerly called Pro Bono Economics, he was chief economist at the Resolution Foundation.

“The Nuffield Foundation sits behind some of the very best social policy research in the UK and helps decision makers to improve the lives of individuals and communities across the entire country,” said Whittaker.

“I’m looking forward to working with colleagues at Nuffield to meet the many challenges the country faces by supporting rigorous, impactful evidence to underpin policymaking.”

Nuffield Foundation chief executive Gavin Kelly added: “His wide-ranging experience of using evidence to illuminate and tackle some of the issues of our age will be invaluable to Nuffield.”

PBE says that its director of operations and finance Cassia Dingwall and chief economist Jon Franklin will lead the think tank as interim co-chief executives.

Last year PBE announced a round of redundancies amid a drop in income at the think tank.

Its workforce was due to be cut from 19 full time and three part-time employees to nine full time and five part time.

“We’ve taken a strategic approach to the restructure that has been necessitated by the drop in our income this year, scaling back our policy and comms work while protecting our ability to support charities across the UK with economic analysis and expertise – recognising the consistently strong demand we face for such work,” said Whittaker at the time.

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