OCF’s trustees are delighted to announce the appointment of our new CEO, Zoe Sprigings, who will be taking up post in late October. Until then, longstanding senior staff member Annette Ahern will be taking up the post of Interim CEO.
Zoe is currently Director of Business Planning and Reporting at C40 Cities, a global charity that supports 100 major cities across the world to take climate action to reduce inequality and thereby to help their communities thrive. Zoe works with the C40 Board – chaired by Michael Bloomberg – to develop and implement C40’s four-year strategic plan. Her role includes focusing C40 on demonstrating impact.
She has also helped enable C40 to scale up its operations over the last eight years, including personally securing multi-million-pound grants from funders such as the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. Zoe is an Oxfordshire resident, and in her spare time volunteers as an English teacher to refugees across the county.
We are also pleased to announce that Kate Parrinder has agreed to become OCF’s Head of Philanthropy. Kate has worked as OCF’s communications lead since 2014, and has an extensive knowledge of our donor community, funding priorities and impact.
Sarah Giles moves to a new role with the Black Swimming Association – a chance for her to combine one of her personal passions with her work life. Over the past year Kate has been working side by side with Sarah on OCF’s philanthropy projects, and is eager to take this work forward. We wish Sarah all the very best in her exciting new role, and thank her for her excellent contribution during her time at OCF.
The team is now focused on driving forward the positive aspects of our transformation and evolution: channelling funding intelligently to address Oxfordshire’s most pressing needs. Over the coming weeks and months, we are dedicated to alleviating the cost-of-living crisis locally, by bringing more funding to grassroots charitable organisations that are best placed to support communities.