The disability charity Scope has appointed Mark Hodgkinson as its next chief executive.
Hodgkinson, who has held senior roles at companies including HMV, EMI and Asda and most recently was the in-location representative for the owners of the development licence for the fast food chain McDonald’s in the Nordic region, will take up the role in January.
He will succeed Mark Atkinson, who left last month to become chief executive of Action on Hearing Loss after leading Scope through a radical restructure involving the sale of its regulated residential and daycare services in order to focus on the charity’s mission of achieving a fairer society for disabled people.
Hodgkinson was interim chief executive of the home-building quango Homes England between April 2016 and March last year and spent six years as chief executive of Virgin Money from 2001.
He is the owner of the business consultancy MPH Consultancy and a non-executive director of the company Oomph!, which helps organisations caring for older adults improve the well-being of people in their care.
The charity said Hodgkinson, who will be charged with continuing the implementation of the the charity’s 2017-2022 strategy, had significant experience of growth and transformation among organisations that put customers at the heart of what they do.
A Scope spokesman said Hodgkinson did not have a disability but said the charity had guaranteed interviews to disabled candidates who met the minimum job criteria.
"After a rigorous assessment and recruitment process Mark was clearly best qualified from the candidates to take on this role," he said. "He has a background in leading growth and transformation in organisations that have a focus on the customers’ needs – they are the heart and soul of his business philosophy."
Hodgkinson will be paid £150,000 to lead the charity, more than the £130,290 Atkinson received in the year to the end of March.
The charity has about 770 staff and had an income of £94.6m in 2017/18, the spokesman said. The income figure is likely to fall once the sale of its care services has been fully accounted for.
The sale of the charity's care services involved about 1,600 Scope staff transferring to the new provider Salutem Healthcare.
"With the transfer of our regulated services, Scope became an organisation that relies on voluntary funding to achieve its ambitions," the spokesman said. "We are growing and diversifying our funding streams, and we are confident of healthy income into the future, albeit remaining a challenge."
Hodgkinson said in a statement he believed the charity was "on the cusp of achieving great changes" with and for disabled people.
"I want to build on the great start made by Mark Atkinson and the leadership team over the last few years," he said.
"I was inspired by the vision of everyday equality for disabled people and am now keen to ensure that we follow through on this ambitious strategy.
Andrew McDonald, chair of Scope, said Hodgkinson’s "understanding of and empathy with Scope’s history and ambitions for equality for disabled people shone through, as did his qualities of leadership, acumen and character".