New Director of Development for Deafness Research UK
22 July 2008
Ruwan Perera has been appointed the new Director of Development for Deafness Research UK. Ruwan was formerly a Director for the charity Missing People and has held numerous senior management roles in other national and international charities over the years.
Deafness Research UK’s Chief Executive, Vivienne Michael, said, “Deafness Research UK is at an exciting and challenging point in its development. This appointment forms part of a major restructuring of our fundraising operations designed to bring more specialist expertise into the charity and move us to the next phase in our growth.
“Our Director of Development will play a key role in taking us forward by delivering significant income growth through high value, corporate, trust and statutory giving and through the wider development of the organisation.
“There are nine million people in the UK who are deaf or hard of hearing. They range from babies who are born with no hearing at all to over six million people over the age of sixty who are gradually losing their hearing as they age. Millions more have hearing problems such as tinnitus and complex conditions such as deaf-blindness.
“As the only national charity dedicated to research in this field, Deafness Research UK has a key role to play and our track record of identifying and backing the best, high impact research is impressive. We have played an important part in some of the most significant advances of recent years from new screening tests to identify deaf babies at birth to improving implants that restore sound to totally deaf people. With research entering a new and exciting phase in which medical cures are becoming a real possibility, we must expand our grant-making significantly to meet the need for new people and programmes in UK hearing research.”
