Ian Williams

Caplor Horizons is a registered charity in England and Wales. Its vision is 'a world where change makers create a sustainable future'. It's mission is to 'be courageous, compassionate and creative in facilitating transformational change'. The team at Caplor Horizons has wide-ranging experience and concentrates on strengthening the effectiveness of small to medium sized not-for-profits.

Annual impact reports, and testimonials, help evidence the quality of contribution made.

Since… Show more

Caplor Horizons is a registered charity in England and Wales. Its vision is 'a world where change makers create a sustainable future'. It's mission is to 'be courageous, compassionate and creative in facilitating transformational change'. The team at Caplor Horizons has wide-ranging experience and concentrates on strengthening the effectiveness of small to medium sized not-for-profits.

Annual impact reports, and testimonials, help evidence the quality of contribution made.

Since it was established in 2014, Caplor Horizons has worked with a hundreds of organisations in multiple countries. Many relationships with clients and partners have proved to be lasting and it reaches a wider audience through circulating updates with relevant learning. It has its own book plus over 20 resource papers. Caplor Horizons has also contributed in other ways (e.g., speaking at conferences and organising events).

In recent years, Caplor Horizons incubated two organisations: The Commitment and, on a much smaller scale, The Great Collaboration; both are a response to the environmental crisis.

Along with a core team of 4 people, a wider group of Advisors is engaged with various workstreams.

Collaborative initiatives, including partnerships, are proactively developed.

In terms of my ongoing learning, I enjoy a variety of topics and finding out about new things. I have been a co-author on most of our papers plus our book, 'The Change Makers Guide to New Horizons – Organising Differently for a Sustainable Future.'

To learn more visit: www.caplorhorizons.org Show less

Haygrove is based in the UK. I’ve been involved with its board since close to the time the business was founded. It has a strategic board which I am a member of. Haygrove also has a board overseeing its governance; I’m the Chair of this.

My engagement focuses on governance, leadership, strategy, organisational culture, coaching.

Haygrove is an innovative and leading international horticultural business. It specialises in soft fruit production in China, Portugal, South Africa, and… Show more

Haygrove is based in the UK. I’ve been involved with its board since close to the time the business was founded. It has a strategic board which I am a member of. Haygrove also has a board overseeing its governance; I’m the Chair of this.

My engagement focuses on governance, leadership, strategy, organisational culture, coaching.

Haygrove is an innovative and leading international horticultural business. It specialises in soft fruit production in China, Portugal, South Africa, and the UK; also, manufacturing and sales of horticultural products globally - this includes a network of representatives in over 30 countries.

Haygrove has won many awards, including for its commitment to sustainability: it has a pioneering reputation in the horticultural sector for the way it integrates a triple bottom line (planet, people, profit) approach. It’s establishing a horticultural group of businesses to accelerate sustainability in the sector.

Having grown strongly over the years, it now has an income around £150m per year and over 3000 staff. Show less

Between April 2019 and March 2024, Caplor Horizons incubated The Commitment. Its purpose: 'giving politicians a powerful reason to act on the climate and the natural world'. A distinctive approach was developed, involving influencing politicians by amplifying voices of citizens about climate change and biodiversity loss. The Commitment has now been transferred to become part of Vote Climate.

Focused on not-for-profit effectiveness and responsible business

United Purpose (UP) merged with Self Help Africa (SHA) in August 2021. As a result, UP has become part of SHA, an international development organisation.

In terms of my work with UP: I was Country Director in Malawi (1990-1992); International Director and Deputy Executive Director (1993-1997); Executive Director (1998-2014).

Through my work with Caplor Horizons, I’ve been fortunate to facilitate change processes, initially at a country programme level re The Gambia and Malawi;… Show more

United Purpose (UP) merged with Self Help Africa (SHA) in August 2021. As a result, UP has become part of SHA, an international development organisation.

In terms of my work with UP: I was Country Director in Malawi (1990-1992); International Director and Deputy Executive Director (1993-1997); Executive Director (1998-2014).

Through my work with Caplor Horizons, I’ve been fortunate to facilitate change processes, initially at a country programme level re The Gambia and Malawi; more recently, at an organisational level helping facilitate board renewal processes and a culture change and transition programme with people across the 17 countries now making up SHA.

Established in 1976 - and originally with the name 'Concern Universal' (pre its rebranding to UP) - the organisation worked very collaboratively. Its largest country programme over many years was Malawi; this includes ‘CUMO’ a micro-finance business with over 60,000 clients.

During the time that I was Executive Director, the organisation grew at over 10% per annum from approx. £2m pa to over £23m per year; at the same time evidence about impact increased and the work strengthened via a commitment to learning and continual improvement. Based in the UK, I was responsible for leading UP’s work and team of approx. 600 people in 10 countries.

I was responsible for initiating very significant collaborative initiatives: e.g., creating a federation with two other development organisations - Vita in Ireland and AFAP in Australia; leading a successful merger with Village Aid, a UK based charity; initiating a substantial strategic partnership with Irish Aid; providing leadership of a major consortium focused on disaster risk reduction and the environment with 6 other organisations, etc

Also, facilitated working in partnership with small and medium sized NGOs; plus enabling a highly distributed leadership approach to decison-making. Show less

Spearheaded the early development of an on line learning resource: this is now called 'NCVO Knowhow'. Wrote more than 10 papers. Led lectures and made many presentations. Facilitated workshops about effectiveness in charitable organisations.