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This year’s Community Foundation AGM – our first in-person since 2019 – will be on the evening of Monday 17 October at the Frederick Douglas Centre on the Newcastle Helix site. We are delighted to announce that our guest speaker will be Lord (Gus) O’Donnell, former Cabinet Secretary. As chair of Pro Bono Economics, Gus sits on the Law Family Commission on Civil Society, for which our CEO Rob Williamson is a technical panel member and wrote an essay outlining how community philanthropy can help the UK level up.
We’re looking forward to hearing Gus’s reflections on the cost of living crisis and the role of charities, community organisations and philanthropy in responding. Invites to our members and guests will be sent out early in the autumn.
About Lord (Gus) O’Donnell
Lord O’Donnell is currently Chairman of Frontier Economics, Strategic Advisor to TD Bank, Executive Director and Strategic Advisor to Brookfield Asset Management, Chair of PwC’s Public Interest Body (PIB), President of the Council of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), Visiting Professor at LSE and UCL, a member of the Economist Trust, and Chair of the Behavioural Insights Team Advisory Board at the Cabinet Office. Gus was Cabinet Secretary and Head of the British Civil Service from 2005-2011.
In 2010, he oversaw the introduction of the first coalition government since the Second World War. Previously, he was Permanent Secretary of the Treasury from 2002-2005 and served on the IMF and World Bank Boards. Gus studied Economics at Warwick University and Nuffield College, Oxford, then lectured at Glasgow University. Knighted in 2005, Gus was appointed to the House of Lords in 2012, sitting as a crossbencher (i.e. not affiliated to any political party). Gus is an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.