VSJ – June 2007 – Members’ News

Mike Ryan, the Director General, talks about changes to the IAP Council

June 1st sees the start of the Institution’s new administrative year 2007/2008. This is the date when five members of the Council stand down by rotation and are hopefully re-elected or replaced by even more enthusiastic new people. Three of our current members have agreed to stand for a further 3-year term.  They are Selva Naidu, John Ellis and Siddique Khan.

After six years of service to the Council, Ray Butler has decided not to stand again this time owing to pressure of work at the London South Bank University. However, he may return some time in the future so there is hope that his valuable experience and cool judgement may not be lost to the Institution forever.

We are particularly sorry to be losing Steve Cumbers, one of the most active of our members since he joined the Council in 1998. Steve was responsible for establishing the very successful format of the IAP symposia at Trinity House, which he started in 1999. Steve was just a few days away from staging IAP2000 the following year, when he was catapulted into the post of IAP Vice President, following the sudden resignation of Alex Robertson. The Council were in no doubt that Steve was the man for the job and reinforced their message by creating him a Companion, in recognition of his services to the Institution.

Steve’s background is in the sciences and he has always had a particular interest in mathematics. For more than 20 years he worked in Investment Banking and Treasury Operations. He has taught courses on financial derivatives and informatics and was Chairman of the Association of Independent Computer Specialists. Now, however, in a stunning redirection of his career, he is retraining for the medical profession. He expects to complete his medical degree at UCL – “a very demanding course”, he says – by 2011. We certainly wish him well and perhaps when he is qualified he will consider providing a bespoke medical service for IAP members!

Unfortunately, the departure of Steve and Ray has left us with two vacancies still to be filled. When we called for nominations earlier this year nobody had stepped forward by the closing date. IAP members seem to be very busy people – I wonder why! So as on some previous occasions it will be up to this year’s Council to co-opt people if and when they see fit.

[Don’t forget to email eo@iap.org.uk with items of news about you or your company.]

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