Glasgow-headquartered homelessness charity Ypeople has appointed a new chief executive.
Janet Haugh will take over the role at the end of the year from the incumbent Joe Connelly who is set to retire after 40 years in social work and care.
Haugh joins from Mary Meal’s International where she is the CEO.
She will take over running the charity which was formerly part of the YMCA movement before disaffiliating earlier this year.
Ypeople supports young people and adults affected by homelessness as well as providing a diverse range of services including mentoring, housing advice, children’s accommodation, counselling and out of school care services.
Haugh joins from Mary’s Meals, a global charity that provides life-changing school meals to more than 1.5 million children in 18 countries every school day.
It has grown significantly during the seven years Janet has been part of the organisation and currently has an income of £26 million and employs more than 500 staff.
She has worked in the charitable and public sectors and has extensive experience in public=c finance.
An accountant by profession she started her career in the NHS before spending 14 years in local government.
She was the financial controller and company secretary of North Lanarkshire Leisure for five years until 2012 before joining Mary’s Meals in a similar role. She will take up her new role in January 2020.
She said she was delighted to be joining a charity making a difference to young people’s lives.
“Ypeople is passionate about delivering services that support the most vulnerable members of our society, with them at the very heart of our plans, and I was incredibly impressed by this approach.”
She added: “I relish the opportunity to grow and develop the services offered, to enable even more people make positive change in their lives.”
Bertie Hunt, chair of the Ypeople board of management, said: “She emerged from a strong field of candidates and impressed the board with her professional experience, passion for our mission and vision for the charity.
“We have no doubt that the background and the expertise Janet will bring to Ypeople are going to be positive for the future of the charity and for the wellbeing of those we support.
“Our long-serving CEO Joe Connolly will be greatly missed. It has been a pleasure to work with him for so many years.
“The charity would not be where we are today without Joe’s management, expertise and experience.”
