Caroline Paige MBE is to step down as Chief Executive of Fighting With Pride (FWP), the LGBTQ+ veterans charity.
Created on the 20th anniversary of the complete lifting of the ban on LGBT+ service – the ‘gay ban’ – FWP supports LGBTQ+ veterans, serving personnel and their families, particularly those who were affected by the ‘gay ban’, ultimately lifted on 12 January 2000. Before then, thousands of LGBTQ+ service personnel were removed or forced from the armed services and abandoned.
More recently, the charity has campaigned for compensation for those affected by the ‘gay ban’. Last month, it was announced that those affected will receive up to £70,000 in compensation, a 50% increase to what was previously announced.
In a statement, Caroline Paige MBE said: “As we begin 2025 and look into a new year and new horizons, I reflect on how much more we have achieved than we anticipated when we began our journey, ahead of our launch in January 2020. We have achieved or set substantial foundations in all of our charity aims, across Campaign, Community Building, Capacity Building and Research and Archive, and the future FWP is leaning now into a new direction, shaping new ways to grow, connect and support the community.
“To better enable this, the charity and the community it supports will benefit from someone with a different kind of experience to take us forward, and deliver this exciting new but inevitable evolution. It is with this in mind that I provided notice to the Board of Trustees of my decision to step down from being CEO of FWP and you will see we are now advertising for this role.
“It is not a recent decision, but is part of the strategy the Board and I have been working on for a while now, preparing for the future. But it was important we got the timing right. Craig and I wished to safeguard the charity from losing all its executive experience at the same time, but we always saw FWP evolving with new leadership and new ideas.
“Our advert for the position of CEO at FWP has now been published, but there is much still to do and it will take some time to find, recruit and onboard a successor who will have the incredible privilege of leading FWP into its next chapter. I’m not going anywhere quickly, and so I will save my thank yous to another day, but even afterwards, I hope to remain part of the FWP family for a long time to come.”
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