Stonewall has today announced that Ben Summerskill is to step down as chief executive after 11 years at the helm.
Summerskill’s tenure saw Stonewall quadruple its income from around £1m in 2003, when he joined, to £4.2m today; and increase its staff numbers from 20 to 75.
Many successful campaigns were also delivered under Summerskill's leadership, most notably the repeal of Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1998 which prohibited local authorities in England and Wales from "promoting" homosexuality. Stonewall was set up in 1989 in reaction to the controversial Section 28 and helped secure its repeal in September 2003 - the year Summerskill joined.
Commenting on Summerskill’s departure, Stonewall chair Jacqueline Davies said that Britain has become a beacon for equality over the time Summerskill has led the organisation. “In the last decade, under Ben’s direction, Stonewall has become a hugely influential campaigning body that has played a key role in achieving legal equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people in Britain – from the repeal of Section 28 to the recent same-sex marriage bill," she said.
“Ben’s own commitment has been extraordinary. He has worked tirelessly to achieve equality at home, at school and at work – and we are enormously grateful to him.”
She added, however, that the charity has much work to do in fighting for equality at home and abroad.
In 2011, Stonewall passed a special resolution to add strategic lobbying overseas as a new charitable object, following approval from the Charity Commission.
Summerskill described his 11-year tenure at the charity as "wonderful". “As a charity, Stonewall comprises a constellation of staff and volunteers who, working together, have achieved remarkable things.
"The fact that Stonewall’s workplace programme now engages the employers of ten million people and one in three local authorities in Britain now works with us to tackle homophobic bullying in schools is testament to some of the fantastic teamwork I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with.”
Stonewall’s current deputy chief executive Ruth Hunt has been appointed as acting chief executive while the charity’s board seeks a new chief executive.
Before joining Stonewall, Summerskill worked as assistant editor at The Observer newspaper.
