British Exploring Society appoints a new Chair

Ian Maginnis has been appointed Chair of the British Exploring Society.

British Exploring Society is a youth development charity that helps transform the lives of young people through challenging expeditions to some of the world’s wildest and most remote locations.

Following consultation with the Board's Nominations Committee, Society led a cross-sector search to identify commercially-minded leaders, ideally with not-for-profit board experience, able to support Chief Executive Honor Wilson-Fletcher in extending BES' work with young people facing multiple disadvantage. Critically, candidates needed both a passion for the charity's mission combined with a sharp business eye required to safeguard organisational sustainability during a shift to more inclusive programming.

Ian is an experienced Transformation Director, who delivers step-change improvements in performance and profitability for private and public sector organisations by leading major change programmes from strategy to implementation. Beyond working in this capacity for organisations including Kimberly Clark, the British Council and Serco, he also served on the board of the YHA (England and Wales) for several years.

Ian commented:

"It is a real honour to be appointed Chair of British Exploring Society. It is a great organisation, that does great work to transform the lives of young people. What I particularly like is the fact that BES’s expeditions are truly open to all - particularly young people who wouldn’t normally get the chance to benefit from outdoor learning and adventure - and that diversity and inclusion are central to what BES does, not just an add on. I’m really looking forward to helping BES continue its success and grow the number of young people it works with in the future."