The culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, has announced government's preferred candidate to be the next chair of the Charity Commission for England Wales.
Dame Julia Unwin, a former chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, has been picked as the government’s choice for the role.
She will now appear before MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee for pre-appointment scrutiny on 25 November.
The commission has been without a permanent chair since the end of April.
Orlando Fraser announced his departure as chair a year ago and stepped down in April at the end of his three-year term. Mark Simms took over as interim chair in 24 April, with the search for a permanent successor continuing beyond Fraser’s departure. Simms' term has now been extended from 24 October 2025 to 24 January 2026 to allow for the ongoing recruitment process to be completed.
Nandy said Unwin will bring “a wide range of experience and expertise to the role having worked across both civil society and regulation” and is an “outstanding candidate to be the chair of the Charity Commission”.
“This will be a vital, public role to ensure that the Charity Commission’s independent regulation delivers high levels of public trust and confidence in charities,” she added.
Unwin has had a long career largely in the voluntary sector, and has also served on the boards of a number of regulatory and government bodies, including five years as a charity commissioner in the late 1990s.
She chaired the Civil Society Futures Inquiry which reported in 2018, and was made a dame in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to civil society.
The Charity Commission chair receives a salary of £62,500 per annum for a time commitment of two and half days per week.
Ministers were assisted in their decision making by an advisory assessment panel which included a departmental official and a senior independent panel member approved by the commissioner for public appointments.