THT: A Matter Of Trust

The chief executive of one of Britain's biggest HIV charity was forced out after a "nasty, vindictive and sustained campaign of bullying" which began on her second day in the job, a tribunal heard.

Dr Rosemary Gillespie claimed trustees at the Terrence Higgins Trust ignored alleged sexual misconduct and "potentially criminal behaviour" at the charity.

And she alleged how the vice-chairman of trustees groped and tried to kiss the male medical director of the charity after getting drunk at a Christie's fundraising auction.

Dr Gillespie, who was brought in to carry out a reorganisation of THT, claims she was forced out of the job after 15 months in July last year after she began investigating the behaviour of trustees.

She said she was appointed CEO in April 2014 "with a clear mandate from the trustees to lead what was widely seen to be much needed changes at the charity".

She is now taking the charity to the Central London Employment Tribunal, claiming she was dismissed after raising several "legitimate public interest concerns" to the trustees.

She told the hearing: "Trustees should have provided support and worked with me and the executive team, to deliver the outcomes and objectives including those agreed in the listening exercise.

"Instead, trustees used the destructive behaviour of a small number of staff resistant to change and scrutiny of their own performance, as a lever to provide legitimacy to their decision to remove me from my post.

"These staff had waged a campaign to remove me from my post; tried to remove me through the 360 process (the management appraisal); and sought to incite 'no confidence' in me amongst colleagues.

"It is clear that when the same solid organisational and financial rigour was applied to trustees and their own behaviour, including after I raised a number of public interest concerns including sexual misconduct and potential criminal behaviour, they refused to tolerate legitimate scrutiny of their own behaviour and removed me from office."

The public interest disclosures included her concerns over an alleged "breach from the trustee's legal obligations" to act in the best interest of the charity in relation to the management of money... 

Telegraph.

Fagburn believes that everyone who works in the HIV/Aids charity sector is a saint with a heart made of solid gold, and refuses to believe a word of this.

They should all be paid even more!

PS The THT has an annual income of £19 million - which would pay for a heck of a lot of leaflets.

Please think about other organisations who may need your money more before donating to them.

Grayson Perry: Half Cat, Half Penis

 

This new work by Grayson Perry, The Spirit Of the Internet, will be sold to the highest bidder at the THT Auction in London next month.

Tickets are £160 - money raised will go towards paying Lisa Power's salary.

Thought For The Day: Nick Partridge

"Many people in the gay community thought the 'gay plague' would be used to roll back the small legal advances that we had made towards equality. Actually, the reverse happened. The community's compassionate response to seeing death and dying painted a much richer picture of the lives of lesbians and gay men. It provided the platform for the extraordinary advances to equality that we have seen in the past 15 years."

Nick Partridge, the outgoing head of Terrence Higgins Trust, is profiled in The Guardian.

PS It's often seen as a no-brainer for well-meaning gayers to raise money for the THT, but, with an income of around £20million a year, there may be many other groups far more in need of your money.