After five years as CEO of The Brilliant Club, Anne-Marie Canning MBE will leave the charity this autumn.
Anne-Marie joined the charity just as the country went into lockdown amid the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Alongside navigating our response to Covid, Anne-Marie has overseen the launch and delivery of our five-year Join the Club strategy, during which we will have worked with over 95,000 students through our access programmes, as well as expanding into work supporting the transition from school to university and engaging parents through our Parent Power chapters.
Anne-Marie said: “Leading The Brilliant Club over the past five years has been an honour. I am very proud of what our team of tutors, staff and teachers have achieved together with young people and their parents across the UK. Access to university continues to be one of the most powerful levers to create lives full of opportunity and I will be rooting for the charity for many years to come.”
The Brilliant Club’s Chair of Trustees, Dr Josephine Valentine OBE, said: “Anne-Marie has led The Brilliant Club with a strong and unwavering commitment to our mission for the last five years. She is dedicated to improving the lives of less advantaged young people and I know she will remain a firm friend of the charity as she steps into her new role. On behalf of the Trust Board, I would like to thank her for leadership, drive and vision.”
Susie Whigham, Interim CEO, will continue to lead the charity, alongside the Executive Leadership Team and our Board of Trustees. We are currently shaping our next organisational strategy, launching in September 2026, and will be aligning our CEO recruitment timelines with this.
We wish Anne-Marie all the best in her new role and thank her for her leadership, and the difference she has made to The Brilliant Club.