Newlife the Charity for Disabled Children is pleased to announce the appointment of new Chief Executive, Fiona Robinson.
Fiona will be leading the charity and it’s ten storesacross the UK into a new chapter, working alongside its board of trustees who are dedicated to helping disabled and terminally children and their families nationwide receive the vital equipment and support they need.
With a retail career spanning more than 30 years, both in the UK and abroad, and including major high street names such as Mothercare and Debenhams, Fiona has consistently played a key role in driving the growth and strategic development of businesses.
In addition to bringing with her vast expertise within the retail industry, Fiona is a motivated leader, taking pride in empowering the teams she works with, and leveraging their strengths to improve.
Fiona said: “It’s an exciting time to be joining Newlife, as we look to develop and drive forward the organisation to be able to help more and more disabled children and their families into the future.
“I am very much looking forward to supporting the Newlife mission and bringing further awareness to our cause. I understand that it’s a challenging time for many of our families, and we are lucky to have a remarkable and dedicated team at Newlife who are committed to supporting them at every step.
“It has been a long-held dream to work within the charity sector, and being able to combine my retail experience with this is a perfect fit.
“I’ve spent a long time in the corporate world, so being able to now use those skills for the benefit of an organisation which makes a real difference to the lives of disabled and terminally ill children and their families is a privilege. I’ve got huge amounts of passion and lots of energy; so bringing that optimism and can do attitude to an organisation that has such massive potential for growth and is doing so much good, is a win-win for me
“I have a lot of different experience to bring to Newlife than it has maybe had previously; I hope that by combining a fresh outlook with the collective experience and ideas of the teams will take the charity into a new era of strong, sustainable growth.”
She added: “I’m excited about the massive opportunities here. We want to build more awareness of what Newlife is and the amazing things we do, and I want to support the team to do that. In just a few days I have experienced the passion and commitment from everyone I have met and who work in this business. We need to bring together all of the great ideas, and create a direction for the organisation, where everyone is proud to work for Newlife.”
Newlife is the largest charity provider of specialist disability equipment in the UK and its ten stores sell brand new stock donated by high street retailers to support its charity aims which, alongside generous financial donations from Newlife supporters and fundraisers, means the charity is helping more children than ever before.”
Newlife’s Chair, Clive Lewis, says: “Our Trustees and colleagues at Newlife are delighted to welcome our new CEO, Fiona Robinson, who started on Monday July 10th.
“Fiona will lead an outstanding team who are dedicated to our core mission to help children and young people living with disabilities through the provision of vital equipment, advocacy and research. To facilitate this, Newlife continues to grow its services to clothing and non-clothing brands throughout the UK, as it has for over 30 years, by turning the sale of stock donations of high street surplus goods into vital equipment and support for children and their families while also helping to save stock from landfill.
“We are now serving more brands, selling more, and this, alongside generous financial donations from our supporters, means we are also helping more children than ever before, and Fiona takes the lead at a time when our vital services are in high demand.”
