Neil Heslop

Chief Executive, CAF

Neil has had a distinguished career in business and the third sector, advising the UK Government on the Disability Discrimination Act in the 1990s.

He became blind age 20 at Newcastle University due to degenerative retinitis pigmentosa. Having graduated in law Neil was a co-founder of the charity Blind in Business that supports blind and partially-sighted young people into work, serving as a Trustee for 26 years.

In 1992 he gained an MBA at Cranfield School of Management, becoming the first blind graduate from a top business school, and went on to hold senior executive leadership roles in the US and UK telecoms industry including as CEO of Cincinnati Bell Wireless and Head of Strategy at O2. In 2002 he was awarded an OBE for services to British telecommunications and charity.

In 2013 Neil combined his knowledge of the business and disability sectors by joining RNIB as a Managing Director. He oversaw the quadrupling of business income to more than £8 million and revitalised the charity’s Talking Book service.

In 2016 Neil became the first disabled CEO of Leonard Cheshire, whose 5,000 staff and 9,000 volunteers support 75,000 people with disabilities in 15 countries with an annual budget of £150 million.

From 2017 to 2020 Neil served as co-chair of the Disability Charities Consortium, a group of the ten largest UK disability charities which promotes the rights and interests of 14 million disabled people in the UK.

In October 2020 Neil became CEO of the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF). CAF is a charity, a bank serving the third sector, and a champion for giving around the world.