Latest news with #Lebec
Reuters
03-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Vicat's Lebec Net Zero project cancelled by US Department of Energy
June 3 (Reuters) - French cement maker Vicat ( opens new tab on Tuesday said its funding agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy for the Lebec Net Zero project had been terminated. The decision is part of the DoE's broader announcement on Friday that it was terminating, opens new tab funding of 24 projects, totalling more than $3.7 billion.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Harry charity engulfed by cash fears, insiders claim
Financial worries and disagreements about fundraising helped inflame the row that has engulfed the charity founded by Prince Harry, insiders close to former trustees told BBC News. An acrimonious boardroom battle has seen Prince Harry, his co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho and trustees resign from their roles at the charity and insiders claimed personality clashes and tensions around leadership of the charity added to Sentebale's challenges. The financial fears were despite the charity receiving an extra £1.2m from Prince Harry's earnings from his best-selling memoir Spare. Sentebale said it had successfully hired consultants to find new US donors – and the one-off money from Spare was "incredibly useful" but did not represent a long-term "funding pipeline". The claims and counter-claims over Sentebale are set to be examined by the Charity Commission, which will have to decide whether to escalate the concerns to a full statutory inquiry. The watchdog is likely to hear financial concerns from former trustees, who resigned earlier this month after the chair Sophie Chandauka refused to step down. "It is devastating that the relationship between the charity's trustees and the chair of the board broke down beyond repair, creating an untenable situation," said a statement from those trustees leaving the charity. Among the likely claims are that £500,000 of Sentebale's money was spent on consultants in a strategy to get donations from wealthy individuals and foundations in the US, but which sources close to former trustees say had not delivered results. Insiders say that if the US fundraising strategy had worked this crisis in running the charity might have been averted. Ms Chandauka has widely used the title "Dr" both for the Sentebale charity and other business settings. This is a reference to an honorary award from Coventry University and is not an academic or medical qualification. A spokeswoman for Sentebale told the BBC that the use of "Dr" was a "matter of personal choice" and there was "no legal restriction preventing honorary degree recipients from using the title". A Sentebale spokeswoman rejected the claim that £500,000 had been spent on US consultants - and defended its approach to seeking new funds for a charity. The charity told the BBC that it had hired a US firm called Lebec to help build a new fundraising strategy, and that by October 2024 a team of six consultants had set up 65 key relationships with potential donors, who might help Sentebale in the future. It said the 12-month deal with Lebec, a women-led strategy firm, had successfully delivered links to "high-net-worth individuals, family offices, corporations, foundations and partner non-profits". The charity said it was important for Sentebale to "build credibility" in the US and that the project had "successfully delivered against every deliverable". The shift to larger-scale US funding would appear to be a different style of approach from Sentebale's fundraising polo matches and celebrity events associated with Prince Harry. Prince Harry, his co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho and trustees resigned from their roles at Sentebale, as a "result of our loss in trust and confidence in the chair of the board". They left a charity which was set up in 2006 to help young people in southern Africa living with HIV and Aids, a project which had strong emotional ties for Prince Harry and the legacy of his mother Princess Diana. Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso said they were resigning from the charity with "heavy hearts". Insiders say that relationships had been "fraught" by last autumn. The trustees' walkout followed Ms Chandauka's refusal to step down as chair - and she responded with her own claims against her former colleagues. She accused Prince Harry of trying to oust her and said she had raised her concerns with the Charity Commission, with a "whistleblower complaint about the bullying, the harassment and the misogyny". Ms Chandauka argued that the controversy around Prince Harry leaving the UK had meant that he had become a barrier to funding from donors. "It was pretty obvious to me that we had lost quite a number of corporate sponsors," she said in a Sky News interview. Ms Chandauka also spoke about a dispute over a video at a fundraising polo match, where it had been claimed the Duchess of Sussex was manoeuvring her out of the way during a prize giving. The body language seemed to be a sign of other tensions. "Prince Harry asked me to issue some sort of a statement in support of the duchess and I said I wouldn't," said Ms Chandauka, who said she did not want the charity to be used as an extension of the publicity for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. There were other tussles over whether Prince Harry had caused disruption by wanting to bring a Netflix TV crew to a fundraising event. But sources close to those who have left the charity do not accept that version of events. If the Charity Commission announces it is going ahead with a "regulatory compliance case", it will gather evidence about the claims over how Sentebale has been managed and will decide whether the investigation needs to be escalated to the next level of a statutory inquiry. Ms Chandauka has argued that the charity can continue without its founders and needs to change its focus to reflect the current needs in southern Africa. A friend of Prince Harry's says he feels as though "he's had one of his fingers cut off". Sign up here to get the latest royal stories and analysis straight to your inbox every week with our Royal Watch newsletter. Those outside the UK can sign up here.
BBC News
01-04-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Prince Harry charity insiders reveal cash worries at Sentebale
Financial worries and disagreements about fundraising helped inflame the row that has engulfed the charity founded by Prince Harry, insiders close to former trustees told BBC acrimonious boardroom battle has seen Prince Harry, his co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho and trustees resign from their roles at the charity and insiders claimed personality clashes and tensions around leadership of the charity added to Sentebale's financial fears were despite the charity receiving an extra £1.2m from Prince Harry's earnings from his best-selling memoir said it had successfully hired consultants to find new US donors – and the one-off money from Spare was "incredibly useful" but did not represent a long-term "funding pipeline". The claims and counter-claims over Sentebale are set to be examined by the Charity Commission, which will have to decide whether to escalate the concerns to a full statutory watchdog is likely to hear financial concerns from former trustees, who resigned earlier this month after the chair Sophie Chandauka refused to step down."It is devastating that the relationship between the charity's trustees and the chair of the board broke down beyond repair, creating an untenable situation," said a statement from those trustees leaving the the likely claims are that £500,000 of Sentebale's money was spent on consultants in a strategy to get donations from wealthy individuals and foundations in the US, but which sources close to former trustees say had not delivered say that if the US fundraising strategy had worked this crisis in running the charity might have been Chandauka has widely used the title "Dr" both for the Sentebale charity and other business settings. This is a reference to an honorary award from Coventry University and is not an academic or medical qualification.A spokeswoman for Sentebale told the BBC that the use of "Dr" was a "matter of personal choice" and there was "no legal restriction preventing honorary degree recipients from using the title".A Sentebale spokeswoman rejected the claim that £500,000 had been spent on US consultants - and defended its approach to seeking new funds for a charity told the BBC that it had hired a US firm called Lebec to help build a new fundraising strategy, and that by October 2024 a team of six consultants had set up 65 key relationships with potential donors, who might help Sentebale in the said the 12-month deal with Lebec, a women-led strategy firm, had successfully delivered links to "high-net-worth individuals, family offices, corporations, foundations and partner non-profits". The charity said it was important for Sentebale to "build credibility" in the US and that the project had "successfully delivered against every deliverable".The shift to larger-scale US funding would appear to be a different style of approach from Sentebale's fundraising polo matches and celebrity events associated with Prince Harry, his co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho and trustees resigned from their roles at Sentebale, as a "result of our loss in trust and confidence in the chair of the board".They left a charity which was set up in 2006 to help young people in southern Africa living with HIV and Aids, a project which had strong emotional ties for Prince Harry and the legacy of his mother Princess Harry and Prince Seeiso said they were resigning from the charity with "heavy hearts".Insiders say that relationships had been "fraught" by last trustees' walkout followed Ms Chandauka's refusal to step down as chair - and she responded with her own claims against her former accused Prince Harry of trying to oust her and said she had raised her concerns with the Charity Commission, with a "whistleblower complaint about the bullying, the harassment and the misogyny".Ms Chandauka argued that the controversy around Prince Harry leaving the UK had meant that he had become a barrier to funding from donors."It was pretty obvious to me that we had lost quite a number of corporate sponsors," she said in a Sky News Chandauka also spoke about a dispute over a video at a fundraising polo match, where it had been claimed the Duchess of Sussex was manoeuvring her out of the way during a prize body language seemed to be a sign of other tensions."Prince Harry asked me to issue some sort of a statement in support of the duchess and I said I wouldn't," said Ms Chandauka, who said she did not want the charity to be used as an extension of the publicity for the Duke and Duchess of were other tussles over whether Prince Harry had caused disruption by wanting to bring a Netflix TV crew to a fundraising sources close to those who have left the charity do not accept that version of the Charity Commission announces it is going ahead with a "regulatory compliance case", it will gather evidence about the claims over how Sentebale has been managed and will decide whether the investigation needs to be escalated to the next level of a statutory Chandauka has argued that the charity can continue without its founders and needs to change its focus to reflect the current needs in southern Africa. A friend of Prince Harry's says he feels as though "he's had one of his fingers cut off". Sign up here to get the latest royal stories and analysis straight to your inbox every week with our Royal Watch newsletter. Those outside the UK can sign up here.
The Guardian
30-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Prince Harry charity row: why did he resign and what is dispute about?
Prince Harry stepped down this week from a charity he began 20 years ago, after an ugly media row. The Duke of Sussex was one of a number of trustees of the Lesotho-based HIV and Aids charity Sentebale to resign over what he called 'untenable' leadership. Here is what we know about what occurred. On Tuesday night, Harry issued a joint statement saying he was 'in shock' and 'truly heartbroken' to be resigning as a trustee of the charity he founded in 2006 in memory of his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, with his co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, over a dispute with the organisation's chair, Sophie Chandauka, a Zimbabwean lawyer. In response, Chandauka hit back, saying they had unsuccessfully tried to oust her because she 'dared to blow the whistle about issues of poor governance, weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny, misogynoir – and the cover-up that ensued'. Trustees Timothy Boucher, Harry's former aide Mark Dyer, Audrey Kgosidintsi, who runs Botswana-based public health organisations, Dr Kelello Lerotholi, who was responsible for local funding, and Damian West, a schoolmate of Seeiso's from Ampleforth college in North Yorkshire who has worked as a consultant in Africa. It appears a division emerged in the board when Chandauka wanted to modernise Sentebale and diversify its income away from being dependent on the prince and the trustees' wealthy friends. While the charity was successful, it was a kind of pet project for Harry, relying on the annual Sentebale polo cup and surviving the pandemic largely through a pro bono performance by the pop star James Blunt, a friend of the previous chair Johnny Hornby, according to one account. Chandauka, who said decisions were made collectively with the board, hired the expensive strategy firm Lebec to shift the charity's fundraising focus away from what a source described as 'a bunch of white blokes'. When donations were reportedly weaker than expected, Harry and other board members asked Chandauka to step down. She refused, taking legal action to stay in her post and reporting them to the Charity Commission. She blamed the drop in donations on the Duke of Sussex's 'toxic brand', as a result of his public spat with the royal family, and said there was a 'significant correlation' with when he left the UK. After the princes' statement, Chandauka accused Harry of an 'unleashing of the Sussex machine' – in other words, engaging his powerful PR team – without telling the charity he had resigned. In a statement she said: 'There are people in this world who behave as though they are above the law and mistreat people, and then play the victim card and use the very press they disdain to harm people who have the courage to challenge their conduct.' She accused the prince and the former trustees of making moves against her because they felt 'a loss of power and control and influence … oh my goodness, the Africans are taking over'. She said she had previously had a 'great relationship' with Harry, whose involvement she said she welcomed, but he had caused problems such as inviting a Netflix crew to a polo tournament in Miami last year without clearing it properly, which led to a new venue needing to be found, and bringing his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, along with no notice, resulting in negative press the charity was unprepared for. The prince has stayed tight-lipped about the allegations and has not responded to any specific claims. A source close to the resigned trustees and patrons said they 'fully expected this publicity stunt and reached their collective decision with this in mind'. Appearing on Sky News with a current board member, the investment banker Iain Rawlinson, Chandauka said she had 'documentation' relating to months of bullying and harassment. An investigation by the Charity Commission will be carried out. A commission spokesperson said: 'We are assessing the issues to determine the appropriate regulatory steps.' When it comes to the future of the charity, Chandauka pointed to the 500-plus staff who work there, mostly in Lesotho, saying: 'Sentebale will live, Sentebale will live on because of the people.'
