The Robertson Trust’s vision is a fair and compassionate Scotland where everyone is able to flourish. Our mission is to prevent and reduce poverty and trauma in Scotland, by funding supporting and influencing solutions to drive social change.
The Trust is now recruiting for a Chair for the Board, who will contribute to the delivery of the Trust’s vision.
The Board of The Robertson Trust is the ultimate decision-making body of the Trust with each board member being a charity trustee.
The Board is responsible for:
- Agreeing plans to deliver the Trust’s strategic objectives;
- Monitoring performance of the Trust’s plans and its investments; and
- Ensuring that the Trust follows best practice in governance and risk management.
The Board meets five times per year (January, March, June, September and December). In addition, board members are asked to serve on a minimum of one of five committees during their term. The Chair will sit on two committees as later described. These make recommendations and offer advice to the board as a whole. These are:
- Audit and Risk– how we assess the risks and opportunities facing us and how well these are being managed.
- Governance, Nominations, Remuneration and Finance– how we embed good governance across the Trust’s work, recommend Board membership of committees, ensure we have the right People Strategy and approach to staff pay and consider income and expenditure reporting.
- Investment– how we work with advisors to ensure the Trust’s responsible and sustainable Investment Policy is being delivered through the strategic allocation of our assets and pursuit of ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) goals.
- Investor Relations– how we act as a responsible shareholder with colleagues in The Edrington Group.
- Social Impact Investment– how we work with advisors to ensure we are delivering our new Social Impact Investment plan effectively. This is a new committee established in summer 2023.
The tenure of the Chair will be four years in the first instance, then renewable by mutual agreement for a further four years. In exceptional circumstances this may be extended by a further year.
The Chair:
- provides leadership across the governance of The Robertson Trust and Kintail Trustees Limited, spanning both OSCR and Companies House reporting duties.
- nurtures a positive and open working relationship with Edrington in the Trust’s role as principal responsible shareholder.
- provides strategic leadership to the Board in support of the Trust’s aims and objectives, working closely with the Vice-Chair and Committee Chairs to enable all Board members to exercise their responsibility as Trustees and Directors.
- works collaboratively with the CEO, to build assurance on successful advancement of the Trust’s Vision, Mission and Strategy up to 2030 in line with the organisation’s values.
Strategic leadership in support of the Trust’s aims
- Enables the Board to achieve assurance that the Trust is pursuing its Mission in confident and creative ways, deploying all of its resources wisely, through the lens of Our Plan (a revised version to be signed off by the Board by March 2025).
- Provides leadership to the Board on strategy/direction, holding Senior Managers to account for impact across the Trust’s core objectives to Fund, Support and Influence social change.
- Works closely with the CEO and Senior Management Team to develop and embed across the Trust ways of working that are rooted in our Values.
- Serves as a voice and face of the Trust with key partners, stakeholders and decision-makers whether in policy-making, the corporate sector or the communities we serve.
- Provides leadership aligned to the Trust’s Mission on Poverty and Trauma and its cross-cutting commitments on Equity, Diversity, Participation and Rights (EDPR) and Climate.
Excellence in governance and compliance with the Trust’s duties as both a charity and company
- Maintains a focus on Board Effectiveness, the good governance standards that underpin it, ongoing propriety, management of conflicts of interest and a consistent approach to effective stewardship of all the Trust’s resources.
- Ensures the Board upholds Equity and Diversity standards and spans the key areas of a Skills Matrix which should be reviewed and updated regularly.
- Builds a close and constructive working relationship with the Chair, Board and senior management of Edrington, in line with Trust’s stance as responsible principal shareholder, serving as a member of the Investor Relations Committee (IRC) which currently meets five times per year.
- Serves as a member of the Governance, Nominations, Remuneration and Finance (GNRF) Committee which currently meets four times a year.
- Enables the Board to maintain the required levels of assurance in complying with all duties as Directors of Kintail Trustees Limited through Companies House and as Charity Trustees through OSCR, by taking action at all times in line with the Trust’s governing documents.
- Ensures the Board is able to agree and review the organisation’s Risk Appetite with scrutiny of the high-level Risk Register at an agreed point in the Board cycle in addition to regular reports from the Audit and Risk Committee Chair.
- Nurtures the knowledge, skills and culture of the Board both collectively and individually via annual 1:1s with each Trustee, leading to personal development actions.
- Working with Committee Chairs and the wider Board, keeps a focus on succession planning, to enable the Trust’s good governance to continue without delay or disruption.
Steering the business of the Board
- Steers five half-day meetings of the Board per year towards well-informed, inclusive and purposeful deliberation, leading to high quality decision-making on a timely basis.
- Ensures each Board member is fully prepared, well briefed and feels engaged to bring their best contribution, in a spirit of collective responsibility for clear decisions.
- Works closely with the CEO to ensure that meeting Agendas and Minutes are planned in advance and that Actions are tracked and implemented consistently.
- Works closely with Committee Chairs to ensure their work is undertaken within clear Terms of Reference, which should be reviewed periodically.
- Nurtures a constructive, open and solutions-focused approach between Board members and with the Executive team.
Working with the CEO
- Serves as Line Manager to the CEO, bringing support and challenge for achieving a set of agreed annual objectives, through regular 1:1 meetings (currently these are monthly).
- Builds an open working relationship in line with the Trust’s Value of Integrity, where each can speak openly about risks, opportunities, achievements and emerging challenges.
- Provides advice and guidance to the CEO, contributing to their personal development and improvement as a leader and serving as a sounding board to think through the dilemmas that often surround good decision-making.
- Seeks regular briefings to maintain a current overview of the Trust’s delivery priorities and ways of working, and to gain assurance on the risks and opportunities therein.
- Conducts interim and annual appraisals with the CEO, engaging with Governance Committee members and providing an annual report to the Board.
Experience, commitment and personal qualities
The knowledge, commitment and experience you bring
- A track-record of success in a leadership role where you have engaged people to succeed, and a clear understanding of how to inspire highly skilled and diverse groups.
- A clear understanding of the Chair’s role in providing strategic leadership in order to develop a high-performing Board clear about the shared Mission.
- An understanding of the principles and standards of charity and corporate governance, finance and investment, the respective roles of the Chair, Board and Executive, and the distinctive nature of The Robertson Trust Group structure with Edrington.
- An understanding of the responsibilities associated with being the principal responsible shareholder of a global business.
- A commitment to build understanding of the roots causes and consequences of poverty and trauma in the Scottish context.
- A commitment to build knowledge of the people and places the Trust is here to serve, and the partners and stakeholder networks to engage and influence.
- Experience of how to advance equity and diversity in an organisation with a strong commitment to improvement.
The skills and capabilities you bring
- Excellent interpersonal skills which enable you to listen effectively, facilitate purposeful discussion, bring constructive challenge and manage diverse views in order to arrive at a consensus around key decisions.
- Strong communication skills which provide clarity on the Board’s stance by summing up issues covered and decision points.
- Leadership capacity that ensures Board members have the resources they need to undertake their responsibilities and brings accountability around Board effectiveness.
- The skills and capability to build an effective working relationship with Edrington.
The personal qualities and ways of working you bring
- Commitment to the Trust’s Mission to prevent and reduce poverty and trauma in Scotland and a belief it can be delivered as expressed in a consistent focus upon solution-building, using all of the Trust’s resources.
- Commitment to the Trust’s Values of Ambition, Integrity, Connection and Equity [new Value proposed in March 2024] and cross-cutting EDPR and Climate objectives.
- An open, inclusive and authentic approach to engagement and communication with the Board, Executive, Edrington and external stakeholders in different sectors which builds trust and credibility.
- Highly developed capacity for reflection, learning and exercising decision-making skills consistent with evidence on the Trust’s position and potential.
Terms of appointment
Remuneration: the role of Chair is voluntary with all expenses incurred in the role of Chair covered in full, including costs to ensure full participation.
Time commitment: for the conduct of its formal aspects, the role requires the equivalent of two days per month, weighted around five Board meetings (in January, March, June, September and December), five IRC meetings across the year, quarterly Governance (GNRF) Committee meetings and monthly 1:1s with the CEO. It is expected that other aspects of the role, for example to be an ambassador for the Trust in key stakeholder meetings or at some events, could take a further day per month.
Location: Board meetings are held mostly at Robertson House in Glasgow, with one meeting at The Barracks Conference Centre in Stirling and one in another location. Investor Relations Committee meetings are held in Glasgow. These meetings are assumed to be in person. Governance (GNRF) Committee meetings are currently hybrid with at least one per year held in person.
Please find links our charity accounts for the Robertson Trust (regulated by OSCR and charity law) and our corporate accounts for Kintail Trustees Limited (A limited company, Corporate Trustee for the Robertson Trust and subject to the Companies Act) for the year ended 31 March 2023. These accounts both include the results of the Edrington Group as subsidiaries within the Group accounts sections. More details can be provided on the group structure and governance upon request.