Good candidates are likely to bring some mix of the following experience, capabilities and qualities to the role:
Essential
- Commitment to War Child’s work and values, including our behaviour framework.
- Willingness to devote the necessary time and effort to the duties of Chair and trustee.
- Ability to lead the Board in all its different aspects.
- Integrity, strategic vision and good independent judgment.
- Resilience under pressure.
- Good communication skills, tact and diplomacy, and ability to work effectively as a member of a team.
- Ability to elicit and listen to the views of others.
- Ability to reach conclusions from board discussions for the good of the organisation and take difficult decisions where necessary.
- Ability to support and challenge the executive, with understanding (and ideally experience) of governance relationships in charities (between board and executive and between Chair and CEO), whilst balancing a risk appetite which is supportive of growth.
- Understanding of the legal responsibilities and liabilities of a trustee of a charity, ideally with track record as trustee and chair.
Desirable
- Knowledge or experience of the type of work undertaken by War Child, challenges faced by similar organisations, or contemporary development issues.
- Knowledge or experience of the international development or humanitarian sectors.
- Knowledge or experience of strategic planning and development.
- Understanding (and ideally experience) of charity financial management.
- Understanding of brand management and communications.
- The ability to develop (and ideally bring) personal and professional networks to support the executive with access to potential donors and supporters (including for instance governments, international bodies, corporates, trusts and foundations, NGOs, and individuals).
- The ability to win respect from a wide variety of stakeholders and contacts.
No optimal balance between the different areas can be precisely pre-determined, as it will depend on the way in which different candidates combine them.