D'Arcy Myers
D'Arcy Myers - Chief Executive Officer, Wessex Heartbeat
A combination of strong leadership skills and a sound business background has enabled D'Arcy Myers to work successfully in 32 countries around the globe.
Now his feet are firmly planted back in the UK as he makes strides in his new role of Chief Executive Officer of Wessex Heartbeat.
The regional medical charity supports the work of the Wessex Cardiac Centre, ensuring that it's at the vanguard of clinical excellence. Since 1992 more than £11 million has been raised for the Southampton-based centre.
Prior to this appointment D'Arcy had been at the helm of Dreams Come True, a national children's charity which aims to make the most treasured dreams come true for terminally and seriously ill children.
During his seven-year tenure he witnessed a doubling of the charity's income, improved cost-effectiveness and the number of young beneficiaries rise from 180 to 365 a year - meeting the charity's vision of fulfilling a dream a day.
"When I arrived in October 2000 I faced the challenge of turning around an established but rather stagnant national charity into an effective business, without destroying the foundation and values which make it unique. A radical change was required, but a very compassionate leadership style," he said.
Before he began working for Dreams Come True, D'Arcy had worked in Third World development for both UK and foreign charities.
D'Arcy was educated at Douai Abbey, a community of monks of the English Benedictine Congregation, near Reading. He then went on to Cranfield University, in Bedfordshire to do a degree which encompassed marketing management and international business development.
He then spent about eight years working in marketing and business development. In 1993 he went out to the independent kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific with VSO, helping to make copra a viable export again. For 20 years there had been a failure in the industry and he managed to get it to the stage where it was being successfully exported once more.
"I went out with my wife Katie and set up a marketing department for the Ministry of Agriculture there. It was a real hardship posting!" he commented.
The overseas project led D'Arcy to work in 32 countries around the world from Africa, the Far East, Europe, the former Soviet Union, USA and the South Pacific.
The two years he spent in the Kingdom of Tonga convinced him that his career lay in third world development and in particularly income generation and self reliance. Over the next decade he was able to work on a variety of projects ranging from setting up farmer and community cooperatives to Government backed export initiatives.
He explained: "My key skills were not so much technical as leadership skills in nurturing communities just emerging from decades of Communism or with little experience of a free market economy."
I n January 2008 he became CEO for Wessex Heartbeat and he is excited by the potential it holds to further support people suffering from heart conditions, their families and the staff at the Wessex Cardiac Centre.
"We're very proud of the achievements, which include providing a 25-bedroom house adjacent to the hospital offering patients' relatives free home-from-home accommodation while their loved ones are receiving treatment.
"We have purchased several million pounds of specialist equipment to aid diagnostics and help health specialists provide the most advanced procedures. Additionally, our funding of a £1 million refurbishment for the children's ward has made it one of the finest facilities of its kind in the UK.
"We have also enabled the paediatric intensive care unit to purchase an intensive care ambulance and Babypod which are used to bring the most vulnerable children safely to the cardiac centre from outlying hospitals. "
He added: "We recently put in place a unique state-of-the-art education and conference centre which is already ensuring that cardiac staff across the region have an opportunity to update their skills allowing them to provide the finest patient care. The conference centre also provides a fantastic venue for local businesses, which we are seeing used more and more for all sorts of conferences and exhibitions."
D'Arcy is passionate about professionalism within the voluntary sector and believes that the leadership within the sector is key to this change. He is active within the sector and amongst other things is one of the founders of the Small Charities Coalition. Through the Coalition he aims to seek out the problems small charities face and find the best solution via innovation, inspiration and leadership.
D'Arcy who is married to Katie, a chartered physiotherapist, has four children and lives in West Sussex. He is a member of various marketing and fundraising institutes, the IoD, and a governor and trustee of different education and voluntary organisations.
Meet the rest of the Wessex Heartbeat team
