From stage hypnotist to the helm of an award-winning Sheffield charity, SCCCC CEO Mark Storey talks reinvention, values-led leadership, and why kindness should be a rule for life.
Interview: Russ Thompson
If you’d told a teenage Mark Storey that one day he’d be running a million-pound charity with 55 staff and nearly 200 volunteers, he’d have probably laughed – and then politely disagreed. “Did I ever see myself being chief executive of a charity? No,” Mark says. “I wanted to be a mechanic.”
And yet, ten years into his tenure at Sheffield Churches Council for Community Care – or SCCCC, as it’s known – Mark has overseen one of the region’s most compelling organisational transformations. It’s a journey that starts in grassroots community work, veers through Menorcan showbiz, and lands with purpose at the heart of South Yorkshire’s third sector.
Mark’s path began with a deeply personal motivator. “My cousin needed an apnoea monitor – she stopped breathing in her sleep. This was 1982 and the equipment cost £350, which was a huge amount at the time,” he recalls. At just 13, he raised not £350, but £3,500. “That was my first journey into fundraising. I just didn’t know then that it could be a career.”
What followed was an unconventional but steady shift into community development. After an early career in the motor trade was cut short by recession, Mark found himself working on one of Pendle’s “roughest council estates”. He later moved into economic development at Burnley and later Bradford, helping communities build capacity, secure funding and, crucially, gain independence. “I was attracting millions in funding for training programmes and upskilling marginalised groups – particularly Asian women, who faced multiple barriers,” he says. “We were making a real difference.”
There’s a through-line here that becomes increasingly clear as we talk – people and purpose.
But just as you think you’ve got the measure of Mark Storey, he throws in a curveball: he was also an international stage hypnotist.
“Yes, that’s right,” he laughs, watching my eyebrows raise. “I spent a few years performing in Menorca, six nights a week. One and a half hours on stage, then editing VHS tapes of the show and selling them the next day. It was a great life for a while. I even met my wife Lisa there – she was a professional singer from Doncaster.”
This wasn’t a gimmick – Mark took it seriously. “Hypnosis is real. Magic is fake. It was about influencing people, creating rapport, engaging your audience. I didn't realise it at the time, but those are skills I use every day now.”
Eventually, the pull of stability – and a growing desire to make a deeper impact – drew Mark back to the UK. After time spent working across a few northern cities, he eventually found his way to SCCCC in Sheffield. But even then, he hesitated. “I wasn’t sure about the job title – ‘Executive Director’ – and I asked outright if I needed to be a practising Christian. They said no, they wanted the best person for the role. So I went for it.”
That was over a decade ago. When Mark started, the organisation operated from the basement of a church hall, with seven staff and what he describes as “maybe 20 volunteers”. The charity was functional, but “the governance structures needed reviewing and strengthening, and we were seen as Sheffield’s best kept secret. I didn’t want us to be a secret. I wanted us to stand for something.”
He took stock, then set about rebuilding – not by imposing, but by asking the right questions. “We ran a workshop and asked everyone: what does SCCCC mean to you? What are our values? What do we stand for?” What emerged was a simple but powerful set of values: Caring, Committed, Compassionate, Credible – the Four Cs.
But what about the 'S'? “We were doing a rebrand in 2025,” Mark says, “and someone said, ‘Why are you changing the name? Everyone knows you as S and 4 Cs’. That got us thinking. Why not give the ‘S’ a purpose too?”
And so the ‘S Frame’ was born – a scaffold of care built on strength, structure and stability. “It became a framework for how we deliver those values,” Mark explains. “It’s the way we look after people.”
Under Mark’s leadership, SCCCC has evolved into a values-led organisation that still holds relationships at its core. Staff numbers have grown to 55, volunteer numbers are close to 200, and turnover has risen to £1.5m. Their services now stretch beyond Sheffield into Doncaster – and that expansion shows no signs of slowing.
Key to that success, says Mark, was implementing the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) – a strategic framework that encourages autonomy and accountability – which he discovered through CEO coaching and peer advisory group Vistage. “I used to be the bottleneck. EOS changed that. Now we’re solving thousands of issues a year, at every level. Each team runs its own L10 meeting, issues are raised and solved. And we empower our people to act.”
He smiles. “We’ve got a 97% staff retention rate. That’s almost unheard of. And it’s because we recruit on values. You can teach skills. But if someone can’t speak to a person with empathy, they’re not for us.”
As CEO, he’s still deeply involved in team culture. “If someone goes above and beyond, I send a handwritten note to their home in a red envelope – like a Valentine’s card. That kind of recognition matters.”
SCCCC’s work tackles some of the most human issues – loneliness, isolation, hospital discharge, community support. “People used to ask what the name stood for,” Mark says. “Now I say: it stands for the way we look after people. That’s a powerful message.”
It’s not just the service users who benefit. The charity hosts students and volunteers who often start out nervous, unsure how to talk on the phone. “They’re used to texting. But after a few weeks, you see the transformation. They develop confidence, communication skills. Some come back to work here full-time. That’s a huge win.”
We talk about the decline of face-to-face conversation, especially among younger generations. “Conversation is natural. It’s just questions, answers, curiosity,” he says. “But it needs practice. And that’s what we give them.”
Towards the end of our chat, I ask everyone the same thing: If you could create one rule for everyone to follow, what would it be?
Mark doesn’t hesitate. “Kindfulness. I heard it from a Buddhist master at an event recently – it’s a mix of kindness and mindfulness. The idea that we act with compassion and awareness, with purpose. It stuck with me.”
It fits. Not just the word, but the principle. You can trace it through every stage of Mark Storey’s story – from a 13-year-old fundraiser to a hypnotist bringing joy to crowds, to a CEO quietly but resolutely reshaping a vital charity from the inside out.
It’s clear he’s not in it for the spotlight. But in telling his story, one thing becomes obvious – Mark Storey is exactly the kind of leader who reminds you what leadership should look like: values-driven, people-first, and proudly unglamorous.
“I don’t need the limelight,” he says. “But if I can help build something that lasts, that matters – that’s enough.”
Scccc.co.uk
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