Chief Executive Officer

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER (CEO)

• Location:
  
  Mostly at the Saïd Foundation office in central London, with some scope for remote working. Occasional international travel to the Levant region where deemed safe.
• Responsible to:
  The Chairman and Board of Trustees.
• Line management:
  Scholarships Programme Manager, Financial Controller, Finance and Programme Administrator.
• Salary: £80,000 - £85,000 pro rata.
• Job type:
  Part-time (three days a week), permanent.

ABOUT THE ROLE

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We are looking for an experienced organisational manager, who will mentor our small and highly motivated team and bring proven expertise around financial and people management and governance as well as of building relationships with different stakeholders and providing strong accountability to charity trustees. You will have an understanding of the Levant region of the Middle East, a commitment to bridge building and respect across cultures and a conviction that education can change lives for the better, create enlightened and effective leadership and benefit wider society.

Our outgoing CEO originally came to the UK as a Saïd Foundation Scholar to study at Oxford University and has worked for the Foundation for over six years. He is leaving to return to Syria. We are looking for an experienced manager to carry on his work in leading our team, maintaining close relationships with our Trustees, partners and students and ensuring that the Foundation’s programmes are run to the highest standards.

ABOUT THE SAÏD FOUNDATION

The Saïd Foundation was established as a non-sectarian and non-political charity in 1982 by Wafic and Rosemary Saïd to bring positive and lasting change to the lives of children, young people and the wider community with a focus on the Levant region of the Middle East and on the UK, and on education as a powerful tool to make change. It is governed by a Board of Trustees and the Board’s Student, Projects, Audit and Investments Committees.

Khaled Saïd has just become Chair of the Board.

Since 1984, our longest-standing programme, the Scholarships Programme, has offered opportunities to outstanding individuals with leadership potential to be drivers of positive change within our target countries of Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine. It brings these change agents to the UK to study for Master’s degrees at exceptional universities and maintains close contact with them during their studies and beyond. Our amazing community of over 700 alumni have gone on to become outstanding leaders in many fields and to build bridges and respect across cultures.

The Foundation’s founder, Wafic Saïd, is also the founder of Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, now one of the world’s leading business schools. The Saïd Business School Foundation (SBSF), also an English charity, was established in 1998 to support the development of the School in its pursuit of excellence. Its Strategic Development Fund provides grants in support of initiatives that will have strategic value to the development of the School.

SBSF is funded and administered by the Saïd Foundation.

The Foundation’s humanitarian work has responded to the shifting needs of the region over immensely challenging times. Since 2011, it has focused on supporting Syrian refugee communities in Lebanon and Jordan through grants to major international non-governmental organisations. Most recently, it has provided support for Gazan children orphaned by the destruction of their homeland. Before the conflict in Syria began, the Foundation ran a capacity-building programme across the country for those working to support Syria’s disabled children.

It helped to set up a sister organisation in Syria, the Saïd Foundation for Development, which will take forward future work in Syria and is now considering how to support the needs of a post-Assad Syria.

In recent years, the Foundation has also worked to promote better health outcomes for people everywhere by making grants to innovative and impactful projects at world-leading medical research institutions based in the UK and known to the Saïd…