The charity’s board of trustees will begin recruiting for a new CEO imminently
Stonewall CEO, Ruth Hunt, has announced she will be leaving the charity in August 2019, following 14 years at the organisation and five years at its helm.
According to the LGBT rights charity, Hunt played a “central role” in many of the organisation’s key achievements, which includes developing the ‘Education for All’ campaign, which, based on research by the charity, has seen “significant interventions” made to reduce homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying for all young people in Britain’s schools.
Additionally, Hunt has seen the organisation through a significant growth period, with staff numbers increasing from 75 to 160, and income growing from £5.38m to £8.69m.
Jan Gooding, chair of the board of trustees, said: “Ruth has been a visionary, bold and inspirational leader during her years at Stonewall. We are incredibly grateful for her generous leadership, her unwavering commitment and her unmatched drive. We will all miss her dearly.
“When Ruth took the reins of the organisation in 2014, Stonewall was a very different place. Over the course of her tenure, she has changed the organisation’s culture, expanded our remit and shown an unequivocal commitment to supporting parts of the LGBT communities that have been traditionally excluded.”
Hunt said: “The past 14 years have been transformative for me, both personally and professionally. I am incredibly proud of how much we have achieved as an organisation and am honoured that I have been the person to lead this change at Stonewall.
“Recognising the diverse experiences and needs within LGBT communities, exploring intersectional identities and looking deeply at multiple forms of discrimination, has not always been a comfortable conversation for Stonewall to have but it has been a vital one.”
She added: “I could not be prouder to have led this amazing organisation for the past five years and look forward to seeing it – and all the amazing people that work for it – go from strength to strength in years to come.”