The Leasing Foundation today announced that it has appointed Ylva Oertengren, chief operating officer of Simply, as its new chair. The appointment was announced at the Foundation’s spring charity drinks, an industry-wide ticketed drinks event held at Hispania in London, which successfully raised £6,000 for its 2024 charity partner, Beyond.
Ylva, who takes over from Nathan Mollett, currently leads the Leasing Foundation’s Innovation Initiative, a network finance professionals exploring opportunities for innovation through design, technology and collaboration. Having over two decades of experience in the financial services sector across Europe and Asia Pacific, Ylva co-founded Simply in 2017 with the vision to build a relationship focussed business lender enabled by technology.
The Leasing Foundation chose youth mental health charity, Beyond, as its charity partner for 2024 at the beginning of the year. Beyond is aiming to address the escalating mental health crisis affecting young people in the UK. With approximately one in five young people suffering from a mental disorder, Beyond uses it expertise and resources to facilitate access to crucial mental health interventions in educational settings. To date, Beyond has worked with over 56 educational settings and provided free mental health resources to over one million young people, all on a very limited budget.
Nathan Mollett, outgoing chair of the Foundation and head of asset finance at United Trust Bank, commented: “It has been a privilege to serve as chair of the Leasing Foundation. I am proud of our achievements during my tenure. Congratulations to Ylva on her appointment, and I am confident she will lead the Foundation to even greater success. I look forward to supporting her and the team in the coming years.”
Ylva Oertengren, new chair of the Leasing Foundation, said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank Nathan for the role he has played in developing the organisation. Under his leadership we have broadened our reach and added new streams to the Foundation’s programme. I am excited to get started and continuing to work with the rest of the board and our partners to build a strong community of finance professionals. As an organisation we have an exciting couple of years ahead of us. I’m also delighted that we’ve raised such a significant sum of money for our charity of the year at such an early stage in the calendar and will focus on driving forward this partnership.”
The Leasing Foundation summer party – also in aid of Beyond – will take place in September. Details and tickets available shortly. Please register your interest here.