We say goodbye this week to someone who has been at the heart of Pilotlight over ten years, Bruce McCombie.
We are delighted he is going onto great things at the for purpose business investment agency The Unreasonable Group. He has achieved great things with us, both for us and for so many, many charities and social enterprises that we work with.
Bruce joined Pilotlight in September 2011, moving from Sussex to London, after applying earlier in fact and not getting the role (we make better judgements now, of course). His first day was a site visit to Working Well Trust in Bethnal Green. Early projects included working with Safe & Sound Derby, Working with Men, Elimination of Leukaemia Fund, Soft Touch Arts, Bakewell & Eyam Community Transport and Harrow Carers. Some of the first Pilotlighters he worked with included Tulsi Naidu and Andrea Sinclair.
Bruce started delivering on the first Morgan Stanley UK Strategy Challenge in 2014. The first five charities were Community Links, Coram, ELBA, Magic Breakfast and The Princes Trust.
In 2015-16 he took on a Head of Programmes role to consolidate and further developed the partnership programme offering, growing our partnerships with Barclays and Morgan Stanley. He says he owes a big thank you to Emma at Morgan Stanley and Rachel and Debbie from Barclays.
In 2016 Bruce became a trustee and then Chair of CareTrade, having first met and worked with the organisation through Pilotlight. The following year he took on a new role of Head of Partnerships, to build membership and grow the new Partnership Programme offering. In 2019, he became Chair of the advisory board of LMP Group, having first met and worked with the founders through Pilotlight.
In April 2020, Pilotlight said goodbye to Gillian, and Bruce took on the Interim CEO role during the first national lockdown. He handed it over to me when I joined in the summer of 2020. We have had a fabulous year and a half of Bruce supporting me in the CEO role and helping the Leadership Team develop plans and ambitions for the future.
Bruce is a calm figure. He uses the word ‘zen’ perhaps from his time in Japan as much as his upbringing in Aberdeen, and he will never be flustered. He explains his ability to do this as down to… music. “One constant over the ten years has been listening of Philip Glass’s Metamorphosis whenever I’ve needed space to think. Like the piece, my time at Pilotlight has been an ever-changing journey, occasionally even a “mad rush”. I arrived young and leave wiser!” he explained.
Others also have words to describe him, and indeed to pay tribute to him.
Gillian Murray, former CEO, commented: “Drive, tenacity and passion are some of the many qualities Bruce brought to his various roles at Pilotlight; he played a key role in Pilotlight’s growth and development. I’m sure his enterprising spirit will be equally invaluable in this next stage of his career.”
Rachel Murphy and Debbie Philips at Barclays said: “Bruce, we cannot thank you enough for all of the time and support that you have dedicated and also to the hundreds of colleagues who have taken part in Pilotlight's programmes. We would never have been able to achieve the huge levels of engagement and impact for the charities without you and the wonderful way that you literally get the job done! We are going to miss you enormously. Wishing you the best of luck with your new role.”
My colleague Charlie Medcalf added: “I have had the pleasure of working with Bruce since his start here at Pilotlight. From the day he walked in as a Project Manager, Bruce was full of enthusiasm and ambition for Pilotlight. He has been instrumental in pushing Pilotlight to diversify its offer, which sees us now delivering programmes across the career levels addressing a more diverse set of needs for our charity partners. His tenacity and focus is unwavering. I will miss him, Pilotlight will miss him, but in true Bruce style, he stuck to his word, only stepping away once we were realising our potential. We always spoke about Pilotlight being on the cusp of greatness, and now more than ever before, the pieces of the puzzle are coming together to realise that potential. Bruce's fingerprints are all over those puzzle pieces, and we can't wait to see that picture come together.”
We wish you well Bruce. Stay in touch!