Goddard leaves trust

SHETLAND Charitable Trust financial controller Jeff Goddard is taking voluntary redundancy after 10 years in the post during the organisation’s most turbulent years.

Goddard joined the trust from Shetland Islands Council in 2003 when it watched its wealth plummet from a high of more than £300 million during the recession at the time. The charity is now worth around £220 million.

He was involved in helping to steer the charity as it reined in its spending from £15 million to £11 million a year.

He has also managed the trust’s financial projections as it takes on its most ambitious challenge yet, the joint development of the Viking Energy wind farm.

On Monday trust chairman Bobby Hunter said they had accepted Goddard’s request to leave the charity on 3 September after 10 years.

His departure comes as the trust settles into a new era where it is no longer controlled by members of Shetland Islands Council and has been taken off the Scottissh charity regulator’s watch list.

Hunter said: “On behalf of trustees past and present I’d like to thank Jeff for his contribution to the work of the trust. We wish him well for the future.”

Goddard was brought up in Kent and moved to Shetland in 1994.

He continues public service as chairman of Hjaltland Housing Association’s management committee and treasurer of the Shetland Islands Credit Union, both of which are voluntary positions.