Action Foundation has announced that Duncan McAuley has been appointed as their new Chief Executive Officer. Duncan has been working at Action Foundation as Head of Client Services since February 2020 and will transition into his new role as the charity’s leader in June.

‘We’ll continue to go from strength to strength’

Duncan expressed his delight at landing the top job: “I’m really excited to be starting as CEO in the coming months and to lead Action Foundation through the next stage of our journey. Julian has done a fantastic job over the past 16 years and I am looking forward to building on his work to provide much needed support to our clients for many years to come.”

“Having been at the organisation for a little over a year I feel very much at home already, and I’m excited to continue working with our fantastic staff team, board and our wonderful volunteers. Together we’ll continue to go from strength to strength and make a lasting difference to the lives of asylum seekers, refugees and migrants in the North East.”

David Lyall, Chair of the Board of Trustees said: “It’s fantastic news that Duncan’s going to be our second CEO. He’s a motivated and strategic leader with a great deal of passion and a strong understanding of the organisation. It was a really strong field of candidates but what really impressed us about Duncan was his track record over the years of working to empower people on the margins.”

“We’re delighted that we’ve reached this milestone of putting a new CEO in place.”

New opportunity for Julian Prior

Outgoing CEO Julian Prior will be working part-time at Action Foundation for the next few months to ensure a smooth transition as he also starts his new role at RAMP (Refugee, Asylum and Migration Policy Project), where he’ll be an Immigration Advisor to Caroline Noakes MP.

Julian commented: “I am looking forward to bringing the experience gained at Action Foundation of the failings of the asylum process to my new role in order to support Caroline to influence the forthcoming reforms of the system for the benefit of many of our clients”

Julian is thrilled about Duncan’s appointment. He added: “It gives us a huge amount of continuity which is so important at this time of significant change. Having seen Duncan’s leadership in action first hand, I’m convinced that he’s the right man for this next phase of Action Foundation’s development.”

Watch out for further recruitment updates as we have a number of exciting opportunities to follow…