Rich Grahame will be stepping down from his role as Chief Executive of Settle after a decade of service in spring 2025.

Rich co-founded Settle in 2015 with his friend Katie Slee after working in homeless hostels and residential care and seeing first-hand the challenges young people face when moving into their first home. They pioneered a new approach to preventing homelessness and equipping young people with life skills by developing The Settle Programme. Since then, Rich has led the rollout of The Settle Programme across London and helped to highlight that care experienced young people becoming homeless, as a national problem, can be solved.

The charity has seen significant growth and expansion under Rich’s leadership. Settle has prevented 700+ young people from becoming homeless, by maintaining an over 95% tenancy sustainment rate, and equipped them with the confidence, skills and resilience to thrive. The organisation now has a team of 20 and a turnover approaching £1 million. Settle’s impact has been consistently recognised over Rich's tenure, including Rich being invited to No.10 Downing Street in 2018 and Settle winning the national Children’s and Young People Now Leaving Care Award in 2023.

Rich Grahame said:

‘After 10 years of leading Settle I feel now is the right time for me to hand over the reins. The charity is in a good position financially and has a strong leadership team and board of trustees in place which makes me confident that now is a good time to make this change.

Growing Settle from an idea to a thriving organisation has been an incredible privilege and adventure. We’ve achieved so much in that time, preventing hundreds of young people from becoming homeless and supporting them to build strong foundations for their adult lives. This has been made possible by the amazing colleagues and supporters who I’ve been lucky enough to share this journey with. Together we have built something special at Settle, and whilst I’ll miss working with everyone, I’m excited to see what Settle’s next chapter will bring.’

Sarah Byrt, Chair of Trustees, said:

‘We are extremely grateful to Rich for all that he has done in leading Settle to where it is today: an organisation which doesn’t just prevent homelessness but which transforms young lives. Planning is well under way to recruit a new CEO who will build on these strong foundations and lead Settle to the next stage of its development. In the meantime, it’s business as usual as the trustees and leadership team focus on our strategic plan.’

Settle's Board of Trustees have appointed Peridot Partners to support with recruiting Settle's next Chief Executive with more information to be shared in due course.

If you would like to receive a copy of the recruitment microsite when the campaign goes live, please contact Bill Yuksel at Peridot Partners via bill@peridotpartners.co.uk