Dame Suzi Leather is standing down, so naturally we get to vote on who replaces her.

Actually we don’t, but you can nominate people & we can all vote: right here.

It needs to be somebody who:

– REALLY understands how charities actually work. And how funder work. And how government works

– can tell government and charities and funders when to get off

–  is media-friendly

– has a high tolerance for boring meetings

– can run an organisation.

Not a huge field is it? My suggestions would include:

– Stephen Lloyd, senior partner at lawyers Bates, Wells & Braithwaite. Universally known, respected & admired. Practically wrote UK charity law. Presumably isn’t going to stay at BWB forever. (And, as Ben Goldacre said of Sir Michael Scholar, “he’s pretty unf**kwithable”.)

– John Kingston, founder of CAF Venturesome, Chair of the Association of Charitable Foundations. Who’s just kind of retired, but he’s way too good to be allowed to play golf all day.

– Tom Hughes-Hallett, who’s standing down as CEO of Marie Curie Cancer Care later this year. He’s got masses of experience of Big Ships (he was a senior banker before switching to cancer), and also of dealing with government. Nobody’d mess with him.

–  Halcolm Hayday,  who’s standing down as CEO of Charity Bank after 19 years at the helm. Running a trouble-free, innovative bank must be pretty tricky and he’s probably got a charity network to die for.

– Sir Gus O’Donnell. He must be looking for something to do right now…

That list is all white blokes who are 50+ which is rubbish. At least they’re not hedge-fund-managers-turned-Tory-party-donors.

Other ideas?