IOSH chief executive Vanessa Harwood-Whitcher to leave in January 2027

Vanessa Harwood-Whitcher will step down as chief executive of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) at the end of January 2027, the body announced on 29 October 2026.

IOSH said she will become group chief executive of a nationwide not-for-profit organisation concerned with social housing procurement. It did not name the organisation.

The institution said the move is a return to the procurement sector for her and will draw on her experience as a trustee of the Chartered Institute of Housing, which lists her as a member of its governing board.

Vanessa Harwood-Whitcher, IOSH chief executive, said: "I'm incredibly proud of my time at IOSH. It's been a real privilege to work with so many dedicated professionals among our membership, volunteers, and staff teams."

Nine years at IOSH

According to the release, she has been with IOSH for more than nine years, joining as its Director of Professional Standards before becoming chief executive in 2021. IOSH's leadership page gives the start of her chief executive role as August 2021.

The leadership page also says she is responsible for implementing IOSH's Activate 2028 strategy, which she helped develop with the Board of Trustees, and that she held senior roles in education and chartered professional bodies before joining. She holds an MBA from Loughborough University.

Anthony Blackman, Independent Interim Chair of the IOSH Board of Trustees, said: "Vanessa has helped to strengthen our membership offer through an enhanced competency framework and CPD scheme, introducing new membership grades, a new IOSH Magazine, and mentoring platform."

He also credited her tenure with Ofqual approval of IOSH as an awarding organisation and the launch of its Level 3 and Level 6 qualifications, and said Commonwealth accredited organisation status and special consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) had given IOSH, its members and the profession a voice on the global stage.

IOSH's own pages describe the two qualifications as the IOSH Level 3 Certificate in Occupational Safety and Health Principles and Practice and the IOSH Level 6 Diploma in Occupational Safety and Health Leadership and Management. The institution says it has held ECOSOC special consultative status since 2023.

The organisation

IOSH describes itself as the Chartered body for health and safety professionals, with 50,000 members in more than 130 countries. It was granted its Royal Charter in 2002.

The departure announcement follows an open letter to IOSH customers, members and volunteers dated 21 October 2026, signed by Blackman as Interim Independent Chair and Harwood-Whitcher as chief executive. In it, IOSH said it had been managing significant disruption since February following the launch of several new IT systems, that it had moved into formal incident response with regular Board oversight, and that trustees had instructed that a fully independent lessons-learned review be commissioned.

What happens next

IOSH said the search for its next chief executive will start shortly, overseen by the IOSH Board of Trustees. Harwood-Whitcher remains in post until the end of January 2027.