Andy Boucher named new GambleAware Chair of Trustees
Boucher will assume the role on 1 April 2025, following the retirement of current Chair, Professor Griffiths, CBE.
Key points:
– Boucher has been a member of GambleAware’s Board of Trustees since December 2023 and is described by the charity as “a leading advocate of important social inequality issues within Great Britain”
– His appointment comes as Professor Griffiths, CBE, prepares to enter retirement, having held the role of Chair since 2017
Andy Boucher has been named as the new GambleAware Chair of Trustees.
As well as taking on his new position, Boucher also holds several other roles. These include serving as Vice Chair and Honorary Secretary of the Making the Leap charity, acting as Chair of Sir George Monoux Sixth Form College and being named the London Place Director for Business in the Community.
He will be replacing Professor Griffiths, CBE, who has played a pivotal role at GambleAware for many years. Prior to her role as Chair, Professor Griffiths also served as the charity’s Deputy Chair of Trustees and became Chair of GambleAware’s Peformance and Delivery Committee.
Professor Griffiths has a lengthy and storied career in public health, having achieved a series of appointments at local, regional and national levels. To date, she remains an Emeritus professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and continues to serve as a Non-Executive Director for Public Health Wales.
During her time at the helm of GambleAware, she helped to navigate GambleAware through a landmark sector shift, which resulted in gambling harm taking up a new and more prominent position as a core public health problem.
At the same time, the charity also weathered its own period of difficulty in 2024, when complaints from campaigners resulted in an investigation by the Charity Commission regarding its sources of funding. However, this case was closed in July of last year, with the charity regulator stating its satisfaction that GambleAware was “taking appropriate steps to ensure its independence from the gambling industry.”
Commenting on her retirement and Boucher’s appointment, Professor Griffiths, CBE, explained: “As I retire, I wish to thank all those in the charity and the wider sector for all that they do. I have worked closely with Andy in his role as Deputy Chair and offer him my full support and confidence as he leads the charity through the forthcoming period of transition.”
GambleAware has asserted its belief that Boucher’s “commitment and experience to collaboration between business and community,” alongside his focus on addressing wider equality and societal issues, will be integral to its new period of transition.
Boucher said: “It is a critical time to be taking on this role as Chair of GambleAware and I am looking forward to leading the charity through this period of change. I am committed to ensuring the future gambling harms system builds on the success and expertise within the charity, which has been a driving force and leader in this space for many years. My priority will be to ensure that there is no degradation of services or programmes during the transition and that the invaluable assets and unparalleled expertise of our staff continue to benefit the system and those we are all here to support.”
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