Charles Hunter-Pease is starting his new role as Chairman of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) today.
 
Together with the charity’s trustees, Charles will advise and support the organisation, guiding the RNLI’s executive team and working with staff and volunteers on the ground.

Charles was a senior manager in the motor industry before retiring in 2007.

He worked for Volvo from
1973, becoming the Senior Vice President of Volvo
Car Corporation in Gothenburg in 1993 and acting as the Senior Adviser to
the Management Team of Volvo Car Corporation from 1999 onwards.

For more than 20 years, Charles has used his management and business expertise as
a volunteer, serving on various RNLI committees including fundraising,
resources, remuneration, membership nomination and property, and has
chaired the group leading the continuous improvement programme for the
past three years.

RNLI Chief Executive Paul Boissier said: ‘Charles brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and energy to his new role as Chairman and I am looking forward to working with him over the next few years.’

Charles, who has been Vice Chairman of
the RNLI since 16 March 2013, will succeed the RNLI’s current Chairman, Admiral the Lord Boyce, today, 11 July.

He said: ‘This is a wonderful opportunity, and a great honour,
to lead an organisation which has meant so much to me for so many years.

‘I
hope I will live up to the standards of this extremely professional and
well respected charity and will give it all the time and effort its
donors, volunteers and staff deserve from a chairman.’

Charles’s first duty as RNLI Chairman will see him participate in today’s naming ceremony of one of the charity’s newest class of lifeboat, the Shannon.

The Jock and Annie Slater is the first Shannon class to enter active service and will take up a place in the RNLI’s relief fleet after the ceremony at the RNLI College in Poole.
 
Charles added: ‘After only four hours in the job, this is a wonderful way to start my chairmanship.

‘It’s such a privilege to host a naming ceremony as it’s a chance for all of us to thank the incredibly generous donors who have funded this lifeboat and to highlight the lifesaving work carried out by our volunteer crews; exceptional men and women who need, deserve and get the very best equipment we can provide.’
 
A normal term of office for the RNLI Chairman is three to five years, subject to an annual reappointment by the Board of Trustees.

Picture: RNLI Chairman Charles Hunter-Pease. Credit: RNLI/Nathan Williams