The refugee employment charity Breaking Barriers has appointed Ciara Devlin as its next chief executive.
Devlin, who has spent almost 18 years in a variety of roles at the homelessness charity Crisis, will succeed Matt Powell, who founded Breaking Barriers in 2015.
Breaking Barriers said that by 2030 it hoped to more than triple its annual income to £15m, increase staff numbers from 80 to more than 300 as part of plans to support 4,000 refugees per year, up from 1,000.
Powell said that he was “no longer the right person to take Breaking Barriers through to its next phase”.
He said: “We have learned many lessons and professionalised an unrecognisable amount since we first started around a kitchen table all those years ago.
“But I am an entrepreneur at heart. While I’ve loved seeing the spark of the idea I had become reality, as we progress through our scale-up phase, we need someone who has ‘been there, done that’.
“I know that Ciara will not only do a great job of continuing the work I started, but that she will also build on this further, enabling the charity to help even more people across an even wider geography.”
Devlin, who will take up her new role on 6 November, said: “While working in the homelessness sector I met many individuals living here as refugees, an experience that opened my eyes to the huge challenges and barriers they face while trying to make new lives here in the UK.
“To now have the opportunity to lead an organisation committed to helping to break down those same barriers is very exciting.”