Tree Aid welcomes a new Chief Executive
01st July 2020
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Our Chair of the Board, Shireen Chambers MBE, introduces our new Chief Executive.
On behalf of the Board and the whole Tree Aid team, I am proud to announce that Tom Skirrow has been appointed as our new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Tom started the role on 1st July, after more than four years as our Director of Operations.
During his time at Tree Aid, Tom has led the team to deliver significant growth across our operations, securing large-scale investment for projects in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ethiopia, Mali and Niger.
Tom has also overseen the development of new and pioneering monitoring and evaluation systems and has supported the development and delivery of our ambitious five-year strategy, which I’m delighted to say we’re exceeding targets on.
A career dedicated to international development
Prior to this, Tom was Country Director for Save the Children in Vanuatu, where he led the emergency response to the category 5 cyclone that devastated the island in 2015. He delivered programmes at scale across Asia for the organisation, including girls’ education programmes in Afghanistan, food security and livelihoods programming in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and resilience programming across South East Asia.
Taking on the role of CEO, Tom said: “I am enormously proud to work for Tree Aid and for what we’ve achieved during my time here so far.
Throughout my career, I have spent a lot of my time responding to the aftermath of major crises, including flooding and drought. At Tree Aid, I have the unique privilege of working on a solution to these catastrophic events that threaten the lives of the most vulnerable.
Tree Aid is addressing some of the most important issues of our time — poverty, land degradation, and the climate crisis — and I am excited to lead the highly experienced team at Tree Aid to deliver long-term change for the communities we work with and for.”
Leading Tree Aid to address the biggest global threats
We are all delighted to welcome Tom to the role as CEO and we hope our partners and supporters will join us in wishing him all the best for his new chapter with Tree Aid. Tom’s impressive leadership of our operations over the last four years, coupled with his positive vision for the future of the organisation, will help Tree Aid go from strength to strength.
Tree Aid’s work, building the resilience of communities in the drylands of Africa in the face of poverty and the climate crisis, is essential in tackling the biggest global threats of the next decade.
We are excited to have Tom’s passion and experience to lead our mission to reduce poverty and protect the environment through the power of trees.
“Tree Aid is addressing some of the most important issues of our time — poverty, land degradation, and the climate crisis — and I am excited to lead the highly experienced team at Tree Aid to deliver long-term change for the communities we work with and for.”
