Meet our new Directors – Adrian Smith

Meet our new Directors is a short profile series our five brilliant new Directors , elected to our Board at our June AGM.

Here we meet Adrian Smith

CCF: Hi Adrian! Let’s get started! Could you tell us what your day job is?

AS: I’m the Chief Executive of Reclaim Fund Ltd, a financial services company that manages the UK’s dormant assets scheme

CCF: That’s fantastic – such a useful thing to do! We can see a connection to our work but tell us – what interested you about joining CCF as a director?

AS: I have a strong background in the Mutual and Co-operative sector and believe that my skills complement the Trustee role at CCF. I very much like what CCF stands for as an organisation and hope that I can play a small part in helping the organisation to develop.

CCF: We agree and are looking forward to working with you! What previous experience have you got in the social investment field?

AS: My day job is heavily focused towards social investment and, more personally, I am also part of the Committee of a community-owned pub.

CCF: We are HUGE fans of community-owned pubs! We’ve been part of More Than a Pub for five years and love seeing pubs come to life under community ownership. It’s clear you agree with us that social investment matters – can you explain a bit about why?

AS: Yes. Social investment enables organisations to start up and grow, where that might not be possible with more traditional forms of commercial finance. Measuring social return is so much more than just a pound note exercise.

CCF: We could not agree more! Aside from what you’ve mentioned above, what co-ops, community businesses or social enterprises have you got, or had, involvement in?

AS: I have worked with a number of CCF’s partners over recent years, as a former senior leader at The Co-operative Bank and, the pub society that I am part of are borrowers with CCF.

CCF: Wonderful! So you understand the issues deeply. For our final question, could you tell us, if you could make one change to civil society what would it be?

AS: Build a greater public understanding of civil society and how it is a force for good.