Award-winning Crawley based Armed Forces charity Building Heroes appoints new chief executive

Founder and Chief Executive Brendan Williams is retiring from his position at Building Heroes Education Foundation after eight years. From January 1, 2023, the current COO, Karen Jefford, will take over as the new chief executive.

This is a rather timely announcement, as Building Heroes have just celebrated its eighth anniversary on September 16. As the UK’s leading tri-service military to construction charity, they have had many achievements since 2014, most notably winning the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise for promoting opportunity earlier this year.

Karen said: “I am honoured to have been appointed as chief executive. Having had the pleasure of working alongside Brendan for the last four years, I have a shared passion and commitment to not only the charity but to those we serve.

“I couldn't be more excited about my appointment. I will be proud to lead the team and together work on the strategy and developments planned for the next few years.”

Approached by his brother-in-law, Brendan came out of retirement to create an introductory construction skills course for veterans and service leavers. He has helped grow the charity and established a framework so the team can excel even further.

They have seen exponential growth and have just celebrated their 2,000th graduate from their training programmes. From one centre in West Sussex offering 50 places per year, they now have 14 centres to accommodate 850 training places per year.

Brendan said: “I am very pleased that the trustees of Building Heroes have chosen to appoint Karen Jefford as my successor as chief executive. Karen has led the development of Building Heroes from the end of the start-up phase through to our current national presence and is now leading our conversion to the industry-led academy model. Having worked closely with Karen for the past 4 years, I know I am leaving the charity in very safe and capable hands.”

See more: Building Heroes Crawley: ‘Opening veterans' minds to the potential opportunities available in the construction industry is what we are about’, Slimming World returns to Southgate and is welcoming new members, Sussex charity officer explains why they swapped ‘family car’ for a bike

Established in 2014, Building Heroes (BH) provides training and employment opportunities in the construction industry for disadvantaged groups such as service leavers, veterans, and military families.