First Jewish chairperson of Depaul trustees

DEPAUL UK, a homelessness charity founded to continue the work of St Vincent de Paul, has appointed its first Jewish chairperson of trustees, writes Joanna Moorhead.

Suzanne McCarthy, who has been the Government’s Immigration Services Commissioner since 2005, is a former chief executive of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and was also previously chief executive of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

She said this week she was ­honoured to take up her new post, which will be officially announced next week. “Depaul is a magnificent charity in what it does, both internationally and in the UK,” said Mrs McCarthy. “Its Vincentian values were what made me want to put an application forward – this is an organisation that’s been walking in the footsteps of the poor for hundreds of years. It takes tremendous strength from its Catholic heritage, and it ­tackles youth homelessness with great imagination and enthusiasm.” Among its recent fund-raising initiatives was one in which volunteers queued for a new iPhone 6, and Depaul then auctioned off the places they had saved in the queue.

Depaul UK’s chief executive, Martin Houghton-Brown, said his charity had experienced a year of very strong growth in 2014, and that Mrs McCarthy’s appointment would help continue this progress into next year and beyond.