About us

The Randal Foundation was founded by Dr Nik Kotecha OBE DL and Moni Kotecha with a clear unwavering vision, which is to save, and significantly improve, the lives of 1 million people, in the UK and around the world.

In establishing our Foundation, our Founders were clear in both their focus and their level of ambition – passionate about making a difference in the world we live in – today. There is real urgency in our desire to make a difference, and our focus remains steadfast to this ambition.

The need for intervention through our life-saving work has never been greater. Right now, lives are being lost around the world – lives which could be saved, often, by simple and readily available interventions.

Lives are also being destroyed and can be significantly improved – usually by measures which have already been proven to work, and by support which can be made available. Saving and significantly improving lives now, through careful and targeted investment, remains our firm goal.

We achieve this by clearly evidencing the impact and defining the outcomes from every charitable investment we make, as we work towards our goal of 1 million lives saved and significantly improved.

Lives directly saved

“An individual whose life is directly saved is a life that was at serious and credible risk of loss before the provision of grant funding and, as a result of expenditure of the grant funding directly or indirectly for the benefit of the individual, has significantly lowered the risk of loss of life”.

Our 2024 to 2027 Strategy

Our ambitious Foundation Strategy 2024 – 2027 sets out our unrelenting ambitions to:

Our approach

Our Foundation provides grant funding to a wide-range of charities, voluntary and Non-Governmental Organisations, in the UK and globally, which deliver life-saving and life-changing services directly to individuals and communities, for public benefit.

We take an evidence-based approach to assessing which causes to support, which we carefully monitor to ensure they achieve the outcomes detailed in their grant applications.
Our approach to evidencing our impact is robust and is informed by the following:

Our vision  ‘Our aspiration is to save, and significantly improve, the lives of 1 million people globally.’

Our mission

The Randal Foundation works to deliver the vision of our Founders, Dr Nik and Moni Kotecha – saving and significantly improving 1 million lives. Working at scale and with pace, we work with aligned and entrepreneurial partner organisations in our grant making, our strategic programmes of charitable investment and in our thought leadership.  We pursue alleviation of poverty and mental ill-health, we seek to avert risk of harm to women and children, we enable prisoner  rehabilitation and we work to improve access to quality healthcare, sanitation and education, in particular for children and the most vulnerable.  We are active across the U.K. and throughout the world, determined to ensure we achieve our vision, doing this with passion and creativity.

 

 

Our values

We have  

Integrity – We are consistent, relevant, ethical and genuine Passion – We act, and inspire others to act, driven by what deeply matters to us

Passion – We act, and inspire others to act, driven by what deeply matters to us

Empathy – We are mindful of our place in the world, the people we help and the challenges they overcome

We are

Pioneering – We invite and stay open to exciting, entrepreneurial and innovative ideas, and are resolute in our approach to deliver on our goals

Responsible – We are evidence-led in our approach to deliver our mission, and we work to ensure a sustainable future for our Foundation

Dr Nik Kotecha OBE,

Founder & Chairman of the Randal Charitable Foundation​

Dr Nik Kotecha is a business leader and entrepreneur, as well as a philanthropist and influencer. 
 
Nik is the Founder and Chair of Trustees of The Randal Charitable Foundation, which he set up with his family in 2017. 
 
Its vision is to directly save lives, help the socially disadvantaged and significantly improve the quality of life for those in need in the UK and around the world with an ambition to save one million lives globally.
 

As a businessman, Nik is the Founder and former Chairman of Morningside Pharmaceuticals, a Midlands-based manufacturer, wholesaler and exporter of branded and generic medicines and healthcare products to the UK and international export markets. He started the business in 1991 from his home garage and grew it into a global business. In 2022 Nik divested of Morningside to concentrate on his philanthropic ambitions. 

Since inception, Morningside has exported to over 120 countries and has over 300 Marketing Authorisations in the UK and globally. As well as products delivered twice daily to UK pharmacies and hospitals, Morningside supplies some of the world’s largest aid agencies such as UNICEF, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Red Cross. The Company also continues to grow in new markets, where product registrations in individual countries offer an opportunity to develop in the private sector. 

In addition to Morningside, Nik is a serial entrepreneur with a number of business and investment interests. His entrepreneurial journey has been recognised by numerous awards, most recently in 2022 being named as one of the Top 50 UK Kindness in Leadership Leading Lights. In 2021 Nik was named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year Regional Champion for Excellence in Sustainability, as well as making LDC’s 2021 list of the UK’s Most Ambitious Business Leaders, as featured in the Times. 
 
In 2019 Dr Kotecha won the National Entrepreneur of the Year category at the 2019 National Business Awards. In 2017, he was awarded an OBE for services to entrepreneurship, innovation in pharmaceutical services and philanthropy.  
 
Nik is active in public service at both national and regional level. His roles include Department of International Trade (DIT) Export Champion and sitting on the Department’s SME Trade Advisory Group. He also plays a dynamic role on the Board of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), East Midlands Chamber of Commerce, the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP), the Midlands Engine Council, CBI East Midlands (Chair) and as Co-Chair of Charnwood Borough Council’s Town Deal Board. Nik is also a Deputy Lieutenant of Leicestershire. 
 
Nik is also Pro-Chancellor of DeMontfort University and in 2022 he was bestowed as an honorary Professor of Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Philanthropy, for the Faculty of Health & Life Sciences.
  
Born in east Africa, Nik came to the UK as a young child and through hard work and tenacity, pursued an education. After gaining a First Class degree in Chemistry at Newcastle, he achieved a PhD from Imperial College London and then went on to further work at Cambridge University, before switching to work in pharmaceutical drug discovery followed by development, manufacture and supply of generic medicines. Nik is married and has two grown up children. 

Governance

The Randal Charitable Foundation is governed by a Board of Trustees, who ensure that grant funding is appropriately reviewed and approved. Trustees are volunteers with extensive experience in philanthropy, charity, business, finance and law. All grant activities follow a Standard Operating Procedure to ensure fairness and adherence to objectives. The governance structure ensures accountability and transparency in all our operations.