Executive pay

The British Heart Foundations vision is to create a world free from the fear of heart and circulatory diseases. Since we were founded, our research has helped reduce UK deaths from heart and circulatory diseases by half. But there is still more work to do, such that we have an ambition to invest over 1 billion in cardiovascular research over the next 10 years. This will only be possible through the continued generosity of our supporters, whether through taking part in an event, a generous legacy gift or a donation of a preloved item to our shops.

It is essential for the BHF to have credible leaders who bring professional expertise, significant leadership experience and strong capability to develop and grow the organisation to be world class. Having a competitive reward offering is one of the many ways in which the BHF can secure the very best people to deliver our ambitious targets and fight for every heartbeat.

The BHF has a clear and transparent policy that not only ensures the selection and retention of high calibre leaders but also ensures our donors, supporters, staff, volunteers, beneficiaries and public recognise the importance of accountability in all aspects of our work including the determination of pay and benefits of the senior team.

How our CEO and senior salaries are decided

The Board of Trustees is responsible for defining BHFs Executive Group Pay Policy and deciding on the salaries of the Chief Executive and the Executive Group Directors. The Board delegates this responsibility to the Remuneration & People Committee which is chaired by Louise Wilson, who is a member of the Board of Trustees, and a senior Human Resources specialist. In the financial year 2025 to 2026 our Chief Executives basic salary was set at 268,239.

More information about pay ranges for our senior staff is in ourAnnual Report and Accounts.

Our Chief Executive and members of our BHF have voluntarily supported the BHF via our Payroll Giving Scheme. These donations are welcomed and valued, supporting the criticality of continuing to fund medical research.

Our Executive Pay principles

Our approach is to pay a fair salary to attract and retain skilled and expert senior leaders for the BHF. Salaries and benefits should be competitive within the charity sector, proportionate to the complexity of each role and responsible in line with our charitable objectives. To achieve this our Executive Group Pay Policy aims to:

• pay the median range for similar organisations in the UK Charity sector market and while not seeking to compete head-on with salaries in the public or private sectors to acknowledge that some Executive Directors are more likely than others to be recruited from these sectors
• ensure performance is reviewed and reported to the Remuneration & People Committee on an annual basis
• apply performance related pay elements only where required by the relevant market sector
• monitor a blend of charity, public and private sector salary trends drawing on independent expert advice and statistically significant survey data to inform salary setting and progression decisions.

Read our Executive Group Pay Policy.