Mark Goldring

Mark Ian Goldring CBE (born 8 March 1957) is chief executive officer of the charity Oxfam GB, Oxfam's British affiliate. He was appointed in May 2013.

Goldring was educated at Churcher's College. He has a bachelor's degree in law from Keble College, Oxford, and a master's degree in Social Policy and Planning in Developing Countries from the London School of Economics.

After leaving University, with little idea of what he wanted to do next, Goldring volunteered with VSO. Goldring volunteered as a teacher in a small town in Borneo for two years.

After leaving VSO, Goldring worked as a legal researcher for BP for nine months, before rejoining VSO, this time as an employee, first in Barbados and then Bhutan, where he set up its operation, and lived for three years.

On returning to London, Goldring completed an MA in Social Policy and Planning in Developing Countries from the London School of Economics. Goldring then moved to Bangladesh to run the United Nations' development programme. Goldring later described how he 'hated' the experience, and noted that 'The combination of UN bureaucracy and the Bangladesh infrastructure brought out the worst in everything'. As a result, Goldring took a job as Oxfam's country director in Bangladesh, while his wife, Rachel, worked for UNICEF. Goldring later moved to Fiji and ran the British government's South Pacific development programme.

Following his time in Fiji, Goldring was appointed chief executive of VSO, a role that he held from 1999-2008. During his time as chief executive, Goldring introduced a number of new initiatives, most notably Business Partnerships, whereby large multinationals, such as Shell and Andersen Consulting, agreed to second staff to VSO as volunteers.

In 2008 he began work as chief executive of Mencap, where he remained for five years.

In May 2013, Goldring was appointed chief executive of Oxfam. While working in this role Goldring took part in the TV documentary Undercover Boss – a long-running series in which chief executives work incognito with the rank and file for two weeks. While taking part in the programme, Goldring spoke with a member of the public who complained about 'people at the tops of these charities who give themselves huge payouts'. Goldring was wearing a wig at the time and was unable to address the issue directly without blowing his cover. During a later interview with Third Sector magazine, Goldring agreed that pay is 'a very significant public issue', but argued that 'You've got to have a hierarchy of salaries, and if you've got as many people with very highly developed skills, as Oxfam has, you've got to pay lots of people quite a reasonable salary. So you pay your chief executive slightly more, on that scale'.

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