New CEO of Big Society Capital is Cliff Prior
Big Society Capital has today announced that Cliff Prior will be its new Chief Executive Officer. Cliff
joins following a career spanning the charity, social enterprise and community sectors. Most
recently he was CEO of UnLtd where over the last nine years he played a pivotal role in growing
support for social entrepreneurship and helping hundreds of organisations to become investment
ready. Before UnLtd, Cliff was CEO of Rethink, the charity for people affected by severe mental
illness – both a membership based campaigning and fundraising charity, and a major provider of
mental health services to the NHS and local authorities. His background also includes social
housing and R&D charities.
Cliff has already made a significant contribution to the development of social investment, both as
Chair of the Mission Alignment Group for the Social Impact Investment Taskforce established
under the UK's presidency of the G8, and as a member of Big Society Capital's Advisory Board.
He will bring this broad experience to lead Big Society Capital as it moves into its next phase –
ensuring more charities and social enterprises can access the repayable finance they need and
helping more people who want to invest some of their savings into doing good to become social
investors.
Cliff Prior said:
“Nick and the team have done a truly excellent job in building Big Society Capital, developing the
intermediary sector, finding the social themes where investment can add value and getting funds
committed for social benefit. It's a real privilege to have the opportunity to use that capacity to
accelerate the next stage in the journey: working with charities and social enterprises to find the
areas where social investment can really make the difference, strengthening their work and
achieving the social impact we all want to see.”
Cliff takes over from Big Society Capital's Founding CEO Nick O'Donohoe who announced he
would be stepping down earlier this year. To-date Big Society Capital has signed £246 million of
investment in a variety of social investment funds, social banks, charity bonds and supporting
organisations. Other key initiatives have included the Business Impact Challenge, which will
announce its winner later this year, support for the introduction and uptake of Social Investment
Tax Relief, and the development of Access – the Foundation for Social Investment, launched
earlier this year to make smaller size investments.
Harvey McGrath, Chair of Big Society Capital said:
“I am delighted to welcome Cliff to Big Society Capital as CEO. We are working towards an
ambitious vision of harnessing the power of financial markets to help charities and social
enterprises to deliver even more social impact. Cliff brings the significant social sector expertise,
commercial acumen and passion for social change that is needed to lead our organisation as we
continue to make this vision a reality.”
Cliff will take up his post in March 2016.
-EndsContact Information
David Dinnage, Senior Media Manager, Big Society Capital
e | [email protected] t | 020 7186 2540 m | 07885 879500
Notes to Editor

Nick O'Donohoe will step down at the end of 2015 to take up a new role as Senior Adviser,
Blended Finance for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Keith Starling, Head of Portfolio Management, will act as interim CEO from January 2016 until
Cliff assumes the post in March 2016.

Recruitment for UnLtd's new CEO is now under way. Further details can be found at
https://recruitment.unltd.org.uk/
Biography for Cliff Prior
Cliff Prior CBE has been CEO of UnLtd, the UK Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs, for the last
nine years. UnLtd has supported 13,000 people to start new social ventures, with cash, coaching
and connections, and backs people from start-up to investment readiness and major impact. UnLtd
is building an ecosystem of support for social entrepreneurs in the UK with 120 partners including
half the universities in England, training supporters, providing methodology and a data commons.
UnLtd is also incubating the Global Social Entrepreneurship Network, a shared learning network
for support agencies already reaching 52 countries.
Before UnLtd, Cliff was CEO of Rethink, the charity for people affected by severe mental illness,
which is both a mass membership campaigning charity and a major provider of mental health
services to the NHS and local authorities. His earlier career includes work in counselling, youth,
civil rights campaigning, social housing, supported housing, community care, offender
resettlement, learning disability, dementia, research and development, and mental health.
Cliff is also a founding trustee of Clore Social Leadership, a non-exec at health innovation agency
UCLPartners, a member of Big Society Capital’s Advisory Board and Comic Relief’s UK Grants
Committee, and chaired the mission alignment group for the G8 Social Impact Investment
Taskforce. He has been an adviser to Government on health and medicines regulation, NHS
modernisation, skills, and civil society. He has set up several ventures over four decades of work in
the social sector.
About Big Society Capital (bigsocietycapital.com)
Big Society Capital is a financial institution with a social mission, set up to build the social
investment market in the UK, so that charities and social enterprises can access appropriate
repayable finance to enable them to grow, become more sustainable and increase their impact on
society. It is doing this by building a diverse social investment market: encouraging investors to
lend or invest money to achieve a social as well as a financial return. Since it was set up as an
independent organisation in 2012, Big Society Capital has invested £246 million in specialist
organisations who lend to charities and social enterprises.

Key numbers (at beginning of November 2015)
o £351 million has been received from the reclaim fund and the four UK high-street banks.
o £505 million has been signed, and is available to charities and social enterprises (of which
£246 million is from Big Society Capital and £259 million is from its co-investors).
o £167 million has been drawn down by charities and social enterprises (of which £66
million is from Big Society Capital and £101 million is from its co-investors).

Details of the Business Impact Challenge can be found at: bigsocietycapital.com/businessimpact-challenge

Details of Social Investment Tax Relief can be found at: bigsocietycapital.com/SITR

Details of Access – the Foundation for Social Investment can be found at: accesssocialinvestment.org.uk