Oral Health Foundation turns to Andrew Hay to lead its next phase
The Oral Health Foundation has appointed Andrew Hay as its next chief executive, with the transition set for January 2027. The move places an operator with commercial and people leadership experience at the helm of a charity whose remit depends on public trust, partner engagement, and consistent delivery across education, prevention, and advocacy.
Hay already has an internal view of the organization’s priorities. He joined the board of trustees in July 2024, giving him a relatively recent but direct line of sight into the foundation’s structure, its current work, and the operational pressures that sit behind a public-facing oral health charity. For organizations built on outreach rather than clinical throughput, continuity matters as much as ambition. Leadership changes can alter tone, pace, and external influence long before they change any formal strategy.
His appointment also signals a deliberate choice of profile. Hay has held senior roles at Co-op since 2019, most recently as Head of Operations, and previously worked at Sainsbury’s. That background brings experience in large-scale systems, team leadership, and organizational change rather than in clinical dentistry itself. In a sector where oral health messaging must reach families, schools, communities, and policy audiences, the ability to manage complex operations and align people around a shared mission can be as important as subject-matter familiarity.
The charity’s board framed the decision as part of a broader effort to strengthen the organization and widen its reach. Oral health charities often sit at the intersection of prevention and public education, where success depends on translation: turning clinical knowledge into behavior change, and turning behavior change into measurable public benefit. A chief executive in that setting has to balance donor confidence, stakeholder coordination, and the practical demands of day-to-day execution.
Hay’s new role comes after a period of board-level involvement, which may ease the handover. Internal appointments can reduce the friction that sometimes accompanies external recruitment, especially when an organization is already midstream in its planning. They can also shorten the learning curve around governance, staff culture, and the external partnerships that determine how far a charity’s message travels.
Leadership continuity, operational breadth, and oral health advocacy
Professor Tim Newton, chair of the Oral Health Foundation, said Hay brings a combination of commercial, operational, and people experience, along with an existing understanding of the organization, its team, and the opportunities ahead. Newton also pointed to important changes made over the previous 12 months to strengthen the charity and increase its impact and influence across oral health. Those comments place the appointment in a clear strategic frame: the foundation is not merely filling a vacancy, but preparing for an expansion of its public role.
Hay’s own response was equally direct. He said he was delighted to take on the chief executive position and described the foundation as dedicated to helping people achieve and maintain better oral health. He also said he was looking forward to working with the team, partners, and the wider oral health community to build on progress already made and explore ways to increase reach, influence, and impact.
For a charity focused on oral health, those words map onto a familiar public health challenge. Dental disease remains heavily shaped by prevention, education, access, and social conditions, which means a foundation’s influence often depends on whether it can stay visible, credible, and practical in equal measure. Leadership therefore affects more than internal administration; it shapes how effectively the organization can support prevention messaging, public engagement, and professional collaboration.
Hay arrives with a record in sectors known for scale and logistics, where service consistency and people management are central. In oral health advocacy, those same skills can help sustain campaigns, coordinate outreach, and keep messaging aligned across audiences that may include clinicians, educators, policymakers, and the public. A charity that wants to expand its influence needs more than a strong mission statement. It needs disciplined execution, an ability to work through change, and enough organizational coherence to keep momentum intact.
This appointment also reflects how health charities increasingly value leaders who can bridge operations and advocacy. Oral health is not isolated from broader health policy, and the effectiveness of a foundation can depend on its capacity to work across sectors without losing focus. A chief executive with experience in complex organizations may be well placed to manage that balance, particularly when the goal is to convert expertise into wider public reach.
The transition will now unfold over the coming months ahead of Hay’s start in January 2027. Until then, the foundation’s current leadership will remain responsible for carrying forward its recent structural changes, while the incoming chief executive prepares to take on a role that combines stewardship, external influence, and organizational growth. The appointment gives the charity a clear succession path, but the practical test will be whether that new leadership can translate continuity into broader public impact without losing the identity that has defined the foundation so far.