Tim Kidd OBE

As UK Chief Commissioner, Tim Kidd is Scouts’ most senior and influential volunteer. Since his appointment in 2016, he has led Scouts’ through one of the most dramatic, successful but also challenging times in its 114 year history. Not only did he oversee the growth of the movement by 50,000 members from 2016-20, he has courageously over the huge challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than call a hiatus when Scouts could no longer meet face to face, he inspired them to move online, to raise £1,000,000 communities in need, and in so doing, saving 500 Scout Groups from closure. Within the movement, he is best-known for his values-led approach. His quietly encouraging, unifying and collegiate leadership style is coupled with huge sense of fairness and practicality. It has won him the admiration of the UK’s half a million Scouts. Tim has given hundreds of hours to the movement in a governance and volunteer management capacity, and spends hundreds more meeting members; listening, thanking and valuing them for the difference they make. In the last year alone, he has recorded over 60 video messages, attended scores of Zoom meetings and personally replied to countless emails and direct messages.