{"id":1532831,"date":"2026-01-28T08:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T07:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/news\/bfa-elects-new-chair-in-historic-move\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T17:33:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T15:33:58","slug":"bfa-elects-new-chair-in-historic-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/news\/bfa-elects-new-chair-in-historic-move\/","title":{"rendered":"BFA elects new chair in historic move"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ruth Brown, Chief Operating Officer of Home Instead, has made history, becoming only the
second woman to be appointed chair of the board of the British Franchise Association since it
was established in 1977.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n


Brown was voted chair following the association\u2019s annual general meeting in December. Home
Instead is a home care franchise, founded in 1994 and currently supporting over 100,000 older
people worldwide. Its mission is \u201cto deliver exceptional, relationship-led homecare franchise
services that enable seniors to live safely, happily, and independently in their own homes\u201d. The
franchise has recently been shortlisted in three categories at this year\u2019s Elite Franchise Top 100
Awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The first female chair of the BFA was Pam Bader OBE<\/strong>, former CEO of cleaning franchise Molly
Maid UK, who took up her role 28 years ago in 1996.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruth Brown only the second woman to be appointed chair of the board since 1977<\/h2>\n\n\n\n


Brown, who has won plaudits for the way she has grown and professionalised the home care
franchise model, takes over from outgoing chair Paul Thompson, founder of children\u2019s
swimming franchise Water Babies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other BFA board members are Angie Coates of Monkey Music, Rachel Brooks from Swimtime,
franchisees Catharine Chalton from Home Instead and Jacqui Moore from McDonalds
Restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Suzie McCafferty of Platinum Wave was re-elected as Advisor and Supplier Forum chair and
Ken Deary from Right at Home and Catharine Chalton from Home Instead were re-elected as the
franchisor and franchisee representatives on the board of the European Franchise Federation.
Caroline Gowing, founder of PA franchise Pink Spaghetti, joins the Board as a newly elected
member.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/svg><\/div>
It is great news that Ruth has been appointed as chair of the
BFA, and I know the entire association will benefit from her enormous experience in the
franchise sector. She has played a leading role in steering Home Instead through substantial growth, embracing multi-unit franchising across the brand and I know she is going to be a steady, guiding hand for the board throughout her tenure. <\/blockquote><\/div>

STATED BY:<\/p>

PIP WILKINS<\/p>

CEO OF THE BFA<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n


Brown has been working in franchising since graduating from university. She joined Home
Instead nearly 16 years ago as Head of Franchise Development and has been working with the
BFA for around seven years, initially as Chair of the BFA Northern Forum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


She stated: \u201cI\u2019m honoured to be named as the BFA\u2019s next chair and to follow in the footsteps of
those who have served with dedication in this role. I am looking forward to working closely
alongside Pip, who is an inspirational figurehead for franchising and the wider BFA team.
\u201cMy commitment to the BFA\u2019s membership is that I will continue to champion franchising in all
its forms, celebrate the opportunities it creates and advocate for greater awareness of the amazing
contribution it makes to the business community and to the lives of so many people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ruth Brown, Chief Operating Officer of Home Instead, has made history, becoming only thesecond woman to be appointed chair of the board of the British Franchise Association since itwas established in 1977. Brown was voted chair following the association\u2019s annual general meeting in December. HomeInstead is a home care franchise, founded in 1994 and currently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":669,"featured_media":1534391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"BFA elects new chair in historic move","_seopress_titles_desc":"Ruth Brown, Chief Operating Officer of Home Instead, the second woman to be appointed chair of the board of the British Franchise Association.","_seopress_robots_index":"","content-type":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"132494,146743,211473,75918,90721,1491129","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[801,825,1846,1,85],"tags":[3458,3459,3347],"type-de-post":[2066],"class_list":{"0":"post-1532831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneur-stories","8":"category-franchise-news","9":"category-entreprendre","10":"category-histoire-entrepreneurs","11":"category-actualites","12":"tag-ruthbrown","13":"tag-britishfranchiseassociation","14":"tag-franchise","15":"type-de-post-articles-actualite"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/669"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1532831"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1535964,"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532831\/revisions\/1535964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1534391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1532831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1532831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1532831"},{"taxonomy":"type-de-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type-de-post?post=1532831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}