Executive Remuneration

Managing Guide Dogs – our Executive Directors

Guide Dogs’ Executive Team is accountable for our vision and strategy. It is responsible for the day-to-day management of Guide Dogs, acting under delegated authority given to it by the Board. It is important for Guide Dogs to have a highly effective leadership team in these senior roles. The members of the Executive Team as of October 2019 are:

Tom Wright CBE, Chief Executive
Deirdre Evans, Chief Financial Officer
Emma Foulds, Director of Marketing, Digital and Influencing
Maria Novell, Director of Fundraising
Wendy Rankin, Director of Operations
Kathryn Ward, Director of People and Performance
Guy Butler, Transformation Director

Our policy on Executive pay

Guide Dogs is a growing, fundraising charity, with the ambition to double the number of people with sight loss that we support. To achieve this, we need to recruit and retain talented leaders with the skills and experience to help us meet our goals. The Board of Trustees, all independent volunteers, decide the level of pay for the Executive Directors, who are accountable to the board for ensuring we transform the lives of those we support. The Trustees use recognised benchmarks to ensure levels of pay are appropriate, and comparable with similar roles in organisations of a similar size and complexity. Benefits for Executive Officers are in line with those available to all staff. This includes a flexible benefits allowance of up to 3% of their salary. This is reviewed and discussed in depth annually, and this pay policy forms part of the contracts of employment of our Chief Executive and Executive Directors. Guide Dogs is committed to greater transparency about voluntary sector pay and supports the recommendations in the National Council of Voluntary Organisations’ (NCVO) Report of the Enquiry into Charity Senior Executive Pay. Information on our pay policy and the pay of senior staff is available in each annual report. Our latest reported accounts are for 2018.

Employee involvement and employing people with disabilities

We are committed to transparency in our work and to involving employees in our decisions. We communicate with employees through day-to-day line management, team meetings, management visits to Guide Dogs’ offices, conferences and away days. We also communicate regularly through our intranet, internal publications and email. In addition, employees can raise any concerns they may have with elected Staff Representatives, which encourages a flow of information up and down the organisation.

Guide Dogs has been awarded the Two Ticks symbol by Jobcentre Plus. The symbol identifies employers who have undertaken to meet five commitments on the employment, retention, training and career development of employees with disabilities. We apply the same principles to anyone who becomes disabled while employed by Guide Dogs.