VSO Chief Executive, Dr Philip Goodwin to step down

The VSO Board of Trustees announce that after more than 9 years in the role, VSO Chief Executive, Dr Philip Goodwin will be stepping down from his post in September 2024 to start the next chapter of his career as Chief Executive of UNICEF UK.

Julia Lalla-Maharajh OBE, the Chair of the VSO Board of Trustees said:

“During his time as our Chief Executive, Philip has made an exceptional contribution to the development of VSO and our role in supporting marginalised and vulnerable people around the world to have improved quality of life and well-being. We are sad to see Philip move on and wish him all the best in his new role at UNICEF UK”.

Over the last nine years, VSO has increasingly focused on the role of volunteering in building active citizenship and promoting locally-led development. The elaboration of VSO’s Volunteering for Development method and the launch of the Global Standard for Volunteering for Development have helped people better understand the transformational nature of volunteering and its importance in delivering the Sustainable Development Goals.

Philip’s work has been integral to VSO building the quality of its programming, its capacity to deliver at scale, its growing focus on fragile and conflict-affected areas of the world, and in diversifying its income streams. Under his leadership, the organisation was an early adopter of the powershift agenda, with the majority of VSO’s strategic leaders now from and based in the Global South and with its volunteers now mostly national and community volunteers in the countries where VSO works.

The Executive will be working with the VSO Board of Trustees to put in place the plan for how VSO organises itself to deliver on its mission going forward.

Philip will remain in post until September. Everyone at VSO thanks Philip for his leadership and wishes him good luck in his new role.