Big Society Capital has announced the appointment of two non-executive directors; former World Bank Group evaluation specialist Alison Evans and Miss Macaroon CIC founder Rosie Ginday MBE.
Alison Evans is the former Director-General and Vice President for Evaluation at the World Bank Group leading the work of the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG). During her tenure, IEG was a founding partner of the Global Evaluation Initiative, a global partnership for supporting monitoring and evaluation capacity building in underserved regions of the world.
Prior to the World Bank, Evans has served as Chief Commissioner of the UK’s Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICIA) and Executive Director of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI); worked in policy, research and advisory on aid and development effectiveness and spent six years as a staff economist at the World Bank in the mid 1990s.
Alison has a PhD in development economics from the University of Sussex and an MPhil in the Economics and Politics of Development from the University of Cambridge. She has served as a NED for a number of mission-oriented organisations from Social Finance UK to BBC Media Action, the Baring Foundation and Oxford Policy Management.
Rosie Ginday MBE has direct experience in impact generation as the founder of Miss Macaroon CIC, a Birmingham-based social enterprise which through catering, retail and training reinvests 100% of profits into helping young people gain vital, life-changing skills. Starting with £500, Rosie went on to take social investment in the form of a £50,000 unsecured loan, and has used this to grow Miss Macaroon to become an award-winning and well-recognised brand in Birmingham and beyond.
She was educated at Leeds Beckett University and University College Birmingham where she studied Professional Cookery. She then worked at Purnell’s under the tutelage of Michelin star chef Glynn Purnell, giving her the experience to help found Miss Macaroon in 2011. She has held voluntary roles as a Business Mentor at the Prince’s Trust, a Governor at Queen Alexandrea College, a Leadership Commissioner at West Midlands Combined Authority and as a Committee Member on the National Lottery Community Fund. She is also a Board member at the Colmore BID.
In 2019, Rosie was made an MBE in recognition of her work in mentoring young people with multiple and complex needs.
The appointments bring further expertise in impact generation and evaluation adding important voices to help the organisation in its goal to grow and develop the social impact market to help combat social problems across the UK.
Stephen Muers, Chief Executive of Big Society Capital, said:
“Ensuring that impact is meaningful and effective is one of the most vital parts of Big Society Capital’s mission. Alison’s expertise in that area and her experience in policy work will be hugely beneficial to help to ensure that our organisation remains committed to its principles of generating real, measurable impact.”
“Rosie is a social investment success story, helping to provide vital and measurable impact to people who need it through a sound business model that needed funding to scale. Her insight will help Big Society Capital support the next generation of social enterprises to help us meet a variety of social and economic challenges.”
“I am delighted to be able to welcome them to the board and continue the work we are committed to the make the UK a better place”
Alison Evans, new non-executive director at Big Society Capital, said:
“I am excited to join the board at Big Society Capital. Social impact investment has so much potential and helping to unlock that is an exciting challenge. With impact generation being so vital, I hope I can provide insight and knowledge which helps Big Society Capital to continue to make a difference.”
Rosie Ginday MBE, new non-executive director at Big Society Capital, said:
“I have seen first-hand the value of social investment to organisations who want to make a difference. I look forward to bringing the voice of someone who runs a successful social enterprise to the Big Society Capital board, to ensure that the challenges and needs of organisations like mine are consistently at the heart of our approach”.
ENDS
Notes
Press contact: Ian Young iyoung@bigsocietycapital.com
About Big Society Capital
Big Society Capital is the UK’s leading social impact investor. Our mission is to grow the amount of money invested in tackling social issues and inequalities in the UK. We do this by investing our own capital and helping others invest for impact too.
Since 2012, we have helped build a market that has directed more than £8 billion into social purpose organisations tackling issues from homelessness and mental health, to childhood obesity and fuel poverty, a ten-fold increase in ten years.
Further information about Big Society Capital can be found at www.bigsocietycapital.com
