From legal practice to charity governance, Suneet Sharma talks through his career path and reflects on the charity sector.
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How did you land your current role, and what was your career path leading up to it?
After taking a brief career break from law, I was deciding to reorientate myself to my career and embrace a new challenge that reflected my renewed focus on altruism. I had volunteered as a Trustee for two charities, Safe In Our World and It Gets Better UK, and with my legal skills built up over a decade had advised charities before including more recently Proud Changemakers, which I joined as Deputy CEO of Governance.

Getting Proud Changemakers their charity registration and working on their foundational governance confirmed what I suspected- I really enjoyed using my legal skills to support charities and the connection with the cause.

I decided to try and make a move laterally, with my transferable skills from law being extremely useful for a charity governance role. I also wanted to build up my experience in membership to support Proud Changemakers in their membership launch. The role at the Association of Language Learning was really exciting and after two rounds of interview I was delighted to be offered a role.

What is the most interesting part of your job?
I am really motivated by intellectual challenge and building a role as a trusted advisor. When something complex arises, I dive in and find I enjoy focusing on pragmatic problem solving. In this vein the horizon scanning element of governance, anticipating changes to regulation and organisational needs, is really engaging. For example, I advised recently on the development of changes to the “soft-in” being extended to charities by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 and how we could use this regulatory easing to engage our members better.

What would be your alternative career?
Having already moved to an alternative career I am not sure I need another one!

What inspired you to work in the charity sector?
Being a trustee for two mental-health oriented charities, Safe In Our World and It Gets Better UK, really gave me a sense of agency whilst allowing me to invest in causes I care about deeply. This formula is what drew me to and keeps me engaged in the sector.

What challenges do you face in your day-to-day work?
As my role at the Association is the first governance role they have had at the charity in recent times there is a lot of foundational work to do. Therefore, there is a vast variety of governance work that needs prioritising and managing into a pipeline as well as a number of stakeholders wiho need careful engagement. This can only be done effectively if you are attuned to the organisational needs and Board’s broader strategy. These factors, combined with the fact there is so much to do, can be very challenging.

What would make the biggest positive difference to the sector right now?
The financial pressures on charitable organisations at present is enormous. For LGBTQ+ charities, such as Proud Changemakers, the difficult political climate towards LGBTQ+ causes, EDI backlash, and the politicisation of people’s identities collectively make this a difficult combination of factors to navigate. In these contexts funding is incredibly scare. As such the availability of substantive multi-year, unrestricted funding and/or the corporate support of charitable work would have a significant impact.

Suneet Sharma is a governance and membership manager at the Association of Language Learning

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