John Stewart is appointed as the new Chairman of Guide Dogs

John Stewart, the Chairman of Legal & General, has been appointed the new Chairman of Guide Dogs in the UK and will take up his appointment on Wednesday 21 November 2012.

John comes to Guide Dogs with a wealth of senior management and business experience across a range of FTSE 100 companies and has the drive and passion to help make a real difference.   

Richard Leaman, Chief Executive of Guide Dogs said: “To have someone of John’s calibre and experience at the helm will be incredibly powerful as we reshape the organisation to enable thousands more blind and partially sighted people to get out and about. I am really excited to be working with John, and feel that he will bring both strategic insight, and a fresh perspective, to the visual impairment sector in general, and to Guide Dogs in particular.”

John Stewart said: “I am deeply honoured to have been appointed as the new Chairman of Guide Dogs.  I am hoping that my business and management experience will help in the governance of Guide Dogs, so we can deliver the strategy to help more blind and partially sighted people to get mobile on their own terms. I am very excited by the new strategy, and the ambition of the organisation to deliver new services that will transform lives, and look forward to help make it happen.”

“I know that I have a great deal to learn about the visual impairment sector and will be meeting service users, partner organisations and staff, to discuss how we can get more people independently mobile.”

For more information and photographs contact:

David Cowdrey, Communications and Campaigns Manager at Guide Dogs tel: 01189 838304, mobile: 07990 540045 or email david.cowdrey@guidedogs.org.uk