This was a huge shock to all of us at the charity, as Isabelle had been so active in our work and so full of energy and life. The Board of Trustees are grieving the loss of an outstanding chair and fellow trustee who had expertly steered the board since March 2023. Personally, I have lost a fantastic line manager and a source of much stability. It was an honour to attend her funeral last month and meet her family, friends and colleagues.
I want to highlight Isabelle’s contribution to Alcohol Change UK – no easy task given the scale and diversity of her contributions.
In late 2018, Alcohol Change UK took on its new name, following the merger of Alcohol Concern and Alcohol Research UK, and was finalising its new strategic framework under Prof Alan Maryon-Davies as Chair. With several current board members reaching the ends of their terms, it was agreed to recruit “four to five” new trustees. We received upwards of 30 applications, 15 of whom were interviewed, and at the end of the process we had seven new trustees. One of them was Prof Isabelle Szmigin. The notes of her interview stated that she came across as “open-minded”, “thoughtful” and “focused”.
Those seven trustees, including Isabelle, were formally appointed in March 2019, under the chairing of John Underwood. The same meeting saw our 2019-2024 strategic framework, strategic implementation plan, fundraising plan, and financial plan secure approval: bringing to the new charity a real focus on ending alcohol harm as fast as possible, committing us to creating meaningful change (for individuals and society), and driving income generation through a wide range of new sources.
Isabelle was a staunch ally of that new strategy, helping her colleagues stick to it when things didn’t always go to plan. One of her favourite remarks was: “plans will always change, but we must stay true to the strategy (unless and until the whole thing is proven wrong!).” She always said that last clause with a mischievous grin.
John had agreed to chair for one year and when he stepped down, we searched externally for a new chair. In March 2020 we were fortunate to appoint Fiyaz Mughal, who had the unenviable task of steering us through the pandemic. Despite the pandemic, we managed to deliver on many aspects of the strategy: transforming the Dry January® challenge into a proper digital behaviour change programme reaching hundreds of thousands of people; bringing our consultancy and training services to scores of new audiences; building a positive and dynamic internal culture; starting to create a genuine fundraising presence; generating vibrant external communications; and sharpening our research spending to better influence government.
Isabelle seemed to be across all of these areas at once! She asked incisive questions and offered words of support, while chairing our Research & Policy sub-committee from April 2021. She chaired in a way that helped both trustees and staff to feel safe and heard, while keeping to time. These skills were noted!
In March 2023, Fiyaz stepped down on the completion of his term. By that time, our 2019 cohort had become the ‘elder statespeople’ alongside one new trustee in March 2020 and three new trustees in October 2022. The board now felt it had rich experience internally from which to appoint a new chair.
After a little nudge, Isabelle put her name forward, and after a thorough election process, became our new chair.
She was an outstanding collaborator, working with our Treasurer to better understand charity finances and our financial risks in particular, meeting with the various sub-committee chairs to ensure they were well supported, and of course working closely with me. She always made time for me, frequently offering genuinely wise advice, ensuring my expenses were signed, my leave was approved, and my annual review was completed thoroughly and to time – all of which are not easy when you are a volunteer with a significant job and busy social and family life.
She expertly steered the board to the end of the 2019-2024 strategy, which was thoroughly reviewed, and then on to the development and approval of the 2024-2029 strategy. This new strategy commits us to much bigger investments from our reserves to help drive much more income growth and, most importantly, a major jump in the amount of social change that we are able to make, so that we can end alcohol harm faster and for more people (charitable expenditure is planned to more than double during this period).
Isabelle brilliantly walked the tightwire between cheerleading this brave new strategy and its potential while taking seriously the risks it brings.
She was great at advising me on what to provide to the board to aid their decision making. And at the crunch decision point, when risks seemed to gather and feel overwhelming, she calmly asked the board to “consider the risks of not acting, of failing to meet the urgent needs that are faced by people, all around the UK, experiencing alcohol harm right now, and all those yet to experience it. We have the chance to prevent lots of this.” Needless to say, the board approved the strategy.
There are many things that Isabelle will now miss. Most painfully, of course, to see her grandchildren grow up and to spend more time with her beloved husband and sons, sister, and wider family and friends. Alcohol Change UK was also an important part of Isabelle’s life, and it saddens me greatly that she won’t see our strategy come to life, or the growing numbers of people we’ll reach, the wider social and policy changes we’ll make happen, and the new insights that our commissioned research will uncover. But as we continue working to deliver this vision, we will remember her huge contributions. She will always deserve a big part of the credit for our successes; for that, we owe her a great debt.
She will be sorely missed, but her open-mindedness, thoughtfulness, and focus, will live on in our strategy and our work
