CIMA chief to take early retirement

David Melvill, chairman of the CIMA Appointments Committee made the announcement today.

He said the institute was grateful for Chester’s contribution during his six years, firstly as secretary and more recently as chief executive officer.

Melvill added that Chester had presided over a period of ‘considerable growth and increase in prestige for the Institute’.

During his time as chief executive of CIMA, Chester emphasised the need for managers to have a broad range of abilities in order to survive in the new fast changing business environment.

‘Skills requirements have shifted’, he told AccountancyAge.com in September 2000.

‘Tomorrow’s business leaders will need to master a portfolio of skills, encompassing traditionally ‘softer skills’, such as communication but without neglecting sound business judgement and strategic vision.’

As CIMA secretary, Chester took a leading role in determining the institutions policy on ethnicity and discrimination and once said: ‘In creating a fair and equal society, positive discrimination is as unacceptable as the more readily recognised negative variety.

‘As such CIMA wishes to ensure that the policy it creates concerning discrimination and ethnicity is appropriate, effective and applicable.’

In 1999, Chester along with directors Maurice Cheng, Mandy Lavin and Robert Jelly, was charged with orchestrating CIMA’s management shake-up aimed at getting the institute ready to fall in line with regulatory changes.

Prior to working at CIMA, John Chester spent his entire career in the Royal Marines, rising to the rank of Major General. His military duties included a period as senior directing staff for the navy at the Royal College of Defence Studies.

CIMA said a search had begun for a successor to Chester.

Links

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CIMA online