Generation UK Announces New Chair of Trustees: Steve Holliday

We are excited to announce Steve Holliday will be joining Generation UK as our new Chair of Trustees. Steve brings a wealth of leadership experience spanning the public, private and charity sectors.

Steve’s extensive career includes almost 10 years as CEO of National Grid, and the Lead Non-Executive Director plus Board member at Defra until 2017. In the charity sector, Steve was Chair of Crisis, the homelessness charity, steering a significant increase in impact over 9 years, growing income and reach 5 fold during his tenure. Steve has also served as Vice Chair of Business in the Community, bridging gaps between underrepresented communities and employers, played a central role in the creation and the subsequent success of the Careers and Enterprise Company in 2014, and was on the Board of Marks & Spencer’s for 9 years. Throughout these contributions, Steve has been passionate and committed to supporting people facing challenges through timely, effective initiatives that have a clear and significant impact on life trajectories.

Steve Holliday’s words on his appointment: “I am delighted to take on the role of the Chair and am looking forward to working with the Board, the management team, and our partners to create more impact. Throughout my career, I have been committed to skills development, and widening access. That is partly because it’s just the right thing to do as a society. It is also a fundamental business requirement: as a business leader, identifying ways to identify and bring in great talent, with a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives, is mission-critical.  Generation’s model and the wider skilling system all have important roles to play to make this a reality, to do so at a wider scale, and to do so with high levels of efficacy and impact. The growing skills gaps across key sectors including health and care, green-skills and tech, must be addressed, and must be done so in a way that creates opportunities for all; we look forward to contributing to that important mission.”

Steve succeeds Dame Vivian Hunt, who led the charity’s founding in 2017 and subsequently served as Chair for 7 years. Under Vivian’s leadership Generation has supported over 2,500 individuals in overcoming barriers to employment through our unique skills bootcamp model. We have seen incredible growth in the scale of our delivery, becoming the leading UK charity running Skills Bootcamps in collaboration with the Department for Education and recently receiving an Outstanding rating from Ofsted. Dame Vivian has been instrumental in shaping our journey throughout those growth phases, including building and developing a strong Board, representing a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives, to carry on the important work.

Dame Vivian Hunt spoke on her time with the organisation: 

“I am immensely proud of the impact Generation has made across the UK over the past seven years. We founded the charity in 2017 to tackle a persistent challenge—one that still exists today: many individuals have untapped potential but lack the support needed to unlock it. Generation has worked tirelessly to fill that gap, showcasing the power of the skills bootcamp model to address skill shortages and drive social mobility. While there is still much work to be done, I am thrilled to welcome Steve as Generation’s new Chair. With his extensive experience and lifelong commitment to this cause, he will be an invaluable asset as we continue our mission.”

Generation UK & Ireland is a nonprofit transforming education-to-employment pathways for individuals facing barriers to employment. Generation provides access to life-changing careers for their learners and also works with employers to create social impact through entry-level hiring.

For more information, visit www.uk.generation.org, for media enquiries contact chloe.winyard@generation.org