GambleAware CEO Marc Etches to step down in 2021

GambleAware has confirmed Marc Etches will stand down from the CEO role at the research, education and treatment (RET) commissioning charity at the end of March 2021. Etches has been in the CEO role for 10 years, leading the charity’s evolution into the primary commissioner of RET services for gambling-related harm in the UK. Overseeing its transition from the Responsible Gambling Trust into GambleAware, the charity has substantially increased its funding and donations over his tenure as CEO, with £40m of grant funding currently under management by GambleAware. In addition, GambleAware will serve as the primary commissioning body for the £100m pledged by members of the BGC over the next five years, allocating that money to RET projects across the country. He has also overseen substantial advertising campaigns targeting problem gamblers, including the ‘When the fun stops, stop’ and more recently the ‘Bet Regret’ safer gambling campaign.

The process to select Etches successor will be led by GambleAware’s board of trustees, with the board confirming it is looking to recruit an individual with healthcare commissioning expertise. GambleAware chairwoman Kate Lampard CBE hailed Etches’ contribution to the charity as taking it from “strength to strength”, pledging to continue this trajectory with the new CEO. “As a result of his hard work, GambleAware has developed the expertise and sustainability to continue to deliver and work with partners across the healthcare spectrum to prevent and protect against gambling harms,” said Lampard. Speaking about his departure from GambleAware, CEO Marc Etches said it had been an “extraordinary privilege” to lead the charity over the last decade and he was “enormously proud” of the work it had achieved. “With the prospect of a new era of increased funding and wider commissioning responsibilities, it is the right time for the charity to find someone with the skills and expertise necessary to take it into the next stage of its evolution,” Etches explained. “I want to thank the Board of trustees and the entire staff team at GambleAware for their hard work and commitment to the charity’s purpose as well as for their magnificent personal support of me,” he added.