Helpforce appoints Amerjit Chohan as new Chief Executive

Helpforce has announced that Amerjit Chohan has joined the charity as its new Chief Executive in January 2025. His 30 years’ experience growing health charities will ensure Helpforce continues to build on its work to grow the impact of volunteering within health, care and communities.

Amerjit joins Helpforce from More Partnership, an international fundraising consultancy that helps organisation’s across the globe make change happen.

Before that, he was CEO at St George’s Hospital Charity, growing it from a small start-up charity into a team of over 30 people, ranked the 11th most loved charity brand in the UK.

Prior to his role at St George’s, Amerjit had leadership roles in hospital and health charities, including Imperial Health Charity, Smile Train and Depaul UK. His experience, vision and ambition mean he brings exceptional understanding of how to design and implement successful development strategies, solidly based on strong relationships across intersecting organisations and teams.

Amerjit is passionate about the National Health Service and its staff who work tirelessly to provide exceptional care, support, and compassion to patients and communities.

Amerjit helped found NHS Charities Together, serving on its Board from 2019 to 2024. He also led a consortium of NHS charities to deliver the ‘Big 7Tea campaign’ as part of the NHS’s 70th birthday.

Amerjit commented about his appointment and the opportunities for Helpforce:

“Helpforce is a tremendous organisation. In the few years since Sir Thomas Hughes-Hallett founded Helpforce, it has transformed how volunteering is seen across health and care. But, there’s still more that volunteers could be contributing.

“I’m thrilled to be taking over as Chief Executive at such an important, transformational moment for our healthcare organisations and systems. We all know about the financial and organisational challenges healthcare faces. Now is the time to be ambitious about optimising the part volunteering can play in supporting people in hospitals, care settings, and in their communities and homes.

“This step-change in volunteering’s role will take leadership, investment and effective collaboration between health and community organisations. On the ground, it needs well-designed volunteering services, based on proven models. This all falls squarely in Helpforce’s area of experience, evidence and expertise. I look forward to working with the great team here to build on the strong legacy left by Mark Lever, Helpforce’s retiring CEO, to ensure Helpforce can play a full role in realising volunteering’s potential to support healthcare across the UK.”

Anna Dixon MBE MP, Helpforce’s Chair, welcomed Amerjit, saying:

“In Amerjit, Helpforce has found an experienced and inspirational leader to take the organisation into its next phase. The expertise he brings as a charity CEO, fundraiser and trustee will enable Helpforce to widen and grow its impact, transforming how volunteering is understood and deployed across health and care.

“I want to welcome Amerjit on behalf of the Helpforce Board of Trustees, and also share our immense gratitude to Mark Lever for all he’s done to establish the charity as the go to organisation on volunteering in the NHS and to put us in a such a strong position to seize opportunities to scale our impact.”