Kirstie Donnelly, who is the Chief Executive Officer of City & Guilds Limited is in a spot right now. She has been in charge of City & Guilds Limited since 2020. Has made a lot of big decisions for the company.. In early 2026 City & Guilds Limited is in the news for some not so good reasons. There are some problems with how the company’s being run, especially with money and who is in charge. Kirstie Donnelly is not working at City & Guilds Limited now because people are looking into some things. They want to know if the people in charge, like Kirstie Donnelly are getting paid much. They also want to know if City & Guilds Limited is being run in a way. City & Guilds Limited is an old company that helps people learn new skills so all of this is a big deal. Kirstie Donnelly and City & Guilds Limited are going through a lot of changes and people are watching to see what happens next.
City & Guilds was started in 1878. It is very important for education and apprenticeships, in the UK. Something big happened to City & Guilds in 2025. The part of the business that made money from awards and training was sold to a company called PeopleCert. They did this to make sure City & Guilds had money and could grow all over the world. The City & Guilds of London Institute is a charity. It kept doing what it has always done.. It sold the part of the business that made money to a private company. City & Guilds still cares about its goal. The main goal of City & Guilds is still the same.
The time after the sale has been really problematic. It came out that Donnelly and the organisations Chief Financial Officer, Abid Ismail got big one-time bonuses soon after the company was bought. Donnelly got a bonus of about £1.7 million. Abid Ismail got about £1.2 million. This information is from different sources. The organisations Chief Financial Officer, Abid Ismail and Donnelly received these bonuses, which has caused a lot of controversy about the sale of the company. Donnelly and the organisations Chief Financial Officer, Abid Ismail are, at the centre of this controversy. The pay for the six executives at City & Guilds went up a lot. It increased from around £1.8 million to £6.2 million. This happened when City & Guilds was also trying to save money by cutting costs. They were trying to cut costs by £22 million. They were letting some people, in the United Kingdom go. City & Guilds was doing this at the time they were giving the top six executives more money.
The Charity Commission is looking into the sale of City & Guilds. They want to know if everything was done fairly and if the people in charge of the charity were told what they needed to know. The Charity Commission is checking to see if the process of selling City & Guilds was transparent. They are also looking at the information that was shared with the charitys trustees and if the people, in charge were paid much money. At the time PeopleCert is doing its own investigation into the actions of City & Guilds senior leadership during the sale and the bonuses they gave themselves. The PeopleCert investigation is focused on City & Guilds senior leadership. What they did during the sale of City & Guilds.
Donnelly and Ismail had to take a break from work in the middle of January 2026 because of these investigations. Other senior leaders, in the company took over their jobs for the time being. The company wants to make sure that Donnelly and Ismail and the company keep doing their job for the students, partners and customers even though Donnelly and Ismail are not there to lead them.
The thing that happened has caused people in the UK to think about whether the people in charge of organisationsre doing the right thing. This is especially true for organisations that used to be charities but are now owned by companies. The UK is talking about this because these organisations have been trusted by the public for a time and have a lot of history.
When the people in charge of these organisations get bonuses but at the same time they are reducing the number of employees and cutting costs it makes people wonder if this is fair. People are questioning how these organisations are being run and what kind of effect this is having on the reputation of the sector. The situation with accountability in organisations that used to be charities is a big deal, in the UK.
Throughout her tenure prior to these events, Donnelly had been widely recognised for championing skills development, apprenticeships, and technical education reform. Her leadership contributed to initiatives aimed at addressing skills shortages across sectors critical to the UK economy. The current inquiries will test not only the actions of senior executives but also the governance frameworks that guided one of the UK’s most prominent vocational education institutions through a complex transformation.
