Guy Willoughby, 54, who co-founded the Dumfries-based Halo Trust 25 years ago, was ordered to step down by trustees at a charity board meeting last week. The trust said there had been a “serious deterioration” in relations between Willoughby and the board, leading to the decision to suspend him. It reviewed his role after the details of his £220,000 a year pay package came to light in January. Willoughby, who lives in Scotland, has not commented on the suspension but a friend told a newspaper he had been treated “disgracefully”. The friend also said the fallout was “damaging to the charity”. The Halo Trust has an annual income of more than £26 million. This includes £4m of taxpayers’ money from the Department for International Development. It rose to prominence in 1997 when Diana, Princess of Wales visited a minefield in Angola being cleared by Halo, shortly before her death. Prince Harry was patron of its 25th anniversary appeal for one year up until March. Angelina Jolie, the Hollywood actress, was a trustee until May this year but left, citing other humanitarian aid commitments. Current board members include Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, who until last week was principal private secretary to both the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and to Prince Harry, and Tom Bradby, the author and ITV News political editor, who is a close friend of both princes. In January it was reported that Willoughby’s pay deal, thought to have been approved more than a decade ago, included school fees for three of his children. He sent them to two of Britain’s most expensive private schools: Oundle School in Northamptonshire and Queen Margaret’s School in York. His eldest child had her boarding school fees paid as well, but is now at university. Politicians have criticised the deal because the charity is supported with public money from the government. Willoughby, a former soldier and jockey, co-founded the Halo Trust in 1988. He has overseen its growth into one of the UK’s biggest international charities, and it employs about 7,000 mine clearers abroad. In January he defended the salary package, saying: “I am abroad two or three weeks every month and my wife is also abroad a lot of the time, so when we are abroad who is going to look after the children?” It was reported that trustees demanded Willoughby’s resignation on Wednesday but he refused to quit, leading to his suspension. Willoughby’s wife Fiona, who had been the charity’s part-time marketing director and official photographer, is no longer working for the organisation. His name has already been removed from the Halo Trust website’s list of senior managers. But Willoughby remains president of the American arm of the charity, which has separate trustees. A spokesman for the Dumfries-based charity said: “The board of trustees of the Halo Trust has suspended Guy Willoughby as chief executive following a serious deterioration in relations between him and the board over the governance of the charity. “The board will now undertake a review of the situation before deciding on the next steps to be taken.” Willoughby has declined to speak about his suspension, but a close friend and colleague told a newspaper: “He has done nothing wrong and just wants to restore his name and reputation. “This is about a clash with some of the trustees. He has been treated disgracefully. Halo staff are completely gobsmacked. “It is just crazy, stupid and damaging to the charity.”
