St John’s Foundation appoints Laura Alexander as new CEO

St John’s Foundation has announced the appointment of Laura Alexander as its new CEO.

Laura joined St John’s in 2023 to lead St John’s Hospital Trading Company, which includes the charity’s commercial ventures, the House of St John’s and St Catherine’s. Since then, she has taken on a broader leadership role within the charity as Director of Operations, bringing a strong combination of commercial insight and ambition to St John’s. She has transformed the charity’s trading operations, strengthened governance across its almshouse provision and spearheaded a more strategic approach to St John’s extensive property portfolio – focused on making better use of its assets to further the charity’s purpose.

Laura’s ability to turn ideas into action, challenge established ways of working and bring a commercial perspective to the charity has helped shape St John’s direction for the future. Her appointment comes at an important time for St John’s. With an ageing population and growing demand for affordable housing for older adults, the need for the charity’s work is increasing. With more than 850 years of experience adapting to the changing needs of its community, St John’s is well placed to respond – evolving its almshouse provision and wider support for older adults to meet the challenges facing Bath and North East Somerset today.

Plans include creating new almshouses in the centre of Bath, and investing in existing homes, enabling St John’s to provide safe, secure and affordable accommodation to more older people.

The Board of Trustees at St John’s Foundation said:

“Over the last three years, we have seen first-hand the enormous contribution Laura has made to both St John’s Foundation and our trading company.

“She has brought energy, passion and strong leadership to the organisation, but just as importantly, she understands St John’s, our people and the responsibility we have to those we support.

“At such an important point in the charity’s development, Laura brings a clear vision for where St John’s needs to go next while understanding and respecting what makes the organisation so special. We are delighted to appoint her to lead St John’s into its next chapter.”

Laura Alexander, CEO of St John’s Foundation, said:

“I’m so proud to be taking on the role of CEO of St John’s Foundation. When I joined three years ago, it was to oversee our trading company, and I could never have imagined then that I would one day have the privilege of leading the whole organisation.

Over those three years, I have had the opportunity to work with some truly brilliant teams and to see first-hand the very real, human impact their work has on our residents and the wider community. Anything I have achieved during my time here has been because of the people around me, and I feel incredibly lucky to now have the opportunity to lead the organisation as CEO.

We’re at an important point for St John’s. With an ageing population and increasing pressure on affordable housing, the need for what we do is growing. We have big plans, including creating more almshouses in the centre of Bath so that more older people in financial need can have a secure and affordable place to call home, but there is much more we want to achieve.

St John’s has been part of Bath for more than 850 years and throughout that time it has continued to evolve to meet the changing needs of the community. For me, the opportunity now is to build on that incredible heritage while being forward-thinking and ambitious about the role St John’s can play in the future. It’s a responsibility I don’t take lightly, and I’m incredibly excited about what we can achieve together.”