RNIB announces new Chair of Trustees
RNIB has announced that Anna Tylor has been appointed as its new Chair of Trustees. Anna is currently Chair of the Vision Foundation, a role she will step down from at the end of August in order to take on this role with RNIB.
RNIB’s outgoing Chair, Eleanor Southwood said: “It has been an enormous privilege to Chair RNIB over the past three years. It’s been a challenging and defining period in our 152-year history. As I reach the end of my term as a Trustee, I’m incredibly proud of the way RNIB is rising to meet today’s challenges and look forward to seeing the organisation go from strength to strength.
“Blind and partially sighted people across the UK deserve an RNIB that is modern, effective and responsive to what people need. The past few years have been characterised by enormous and much needed progress in RNIB’s finances, governance and operations. Our rebrand has fundamentally changed how we think about sight loss and set us well on the way to becoming an organisation that is driven by the lived experiences of blind and partially sighted people in all we do.
“I am delighted to welcome Anna as RNIB’s new Chair and am looking forward to working together on a smooth transition over the coming months.”
In her current role as Chair of the Vision Foundation, Anna has overseen a transformation of the charity’s branding, strategy and finances. She is a long-time advocate for greater inclusion of disabled people, and blind and partially sighted people in particular. She initiated the establishment of the UK educational collection, now RNIB’s Bookshare, to offer visually impaired and other disabled learners equal access to the curriculum.
“I am deeply honoured to be chosen as RNIB’s new Chair and thrilled to be joining the organisation at such an interesting point in its history. RNIB is uniquely positioned to support and campaign on behalf of blind and partially sighted people. RNIB will become more vital than ever in the coming months as we work to prevent the advances of the past two decades being rolled back by responses to the pandemic. I am looking forward to working with the RNIB Board of Trustees and with CEO Matt Stringer and his team to continue RNIB’s transformation into a dynamic, modern organisation that will meet these challenges head-on, delivering equal citizenship for blind and partially-sighted people.”
Anna Tylor will take over as Chair in Autumn 2020, following a transition period over the summer.
Notes to editors
For media enquiries, contact RNIB’s PR team on 0207 391 2223 or [email protected]. For urgent enquiries out-of-hours, please call 07968 482812.
About RNIB
We are the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).
Every six minutes, someone in the UK begins to lose their sight. RNIB is taking a stand against exclusion, inequality and isolation to create a world without barriers where people with sight loss can lead full lives. A different world where society values blind and partially sighted people not for the disabilities they’ve overcome, but for the people they are.
RNIB. See differently.
Call the RNIB Helpline on 0303 123 9999 or visit www.rnib.org.uk