Annual Report 2009 - Chartered Institute of Arbitrators

Annual Report 2009We made progress on scholarships to be introduced in 2010.Two highly successful academic events; the second annualMediation Symposium, with Lord Woolf as keynote speaker,and the reintroduction of the Alexander Lecture with a dualperformance by Sir Phillip Otton and Michael Beloff QC onsports arbitration in Lords’ Conference Centre both made asignificant impact, raising the Chartered Institute’s visibilityand stature to their different audiences. Both events will, wehope, become annual occasions. We again supported boththe ICC Mediation Competition in Paris in February and theVis Moots in both Vienna and Hong Kong, the latter of coursehosted magnificently by the East Asia Branch.Aaron Hudson-Tyreman, Director of Research andDevelopment and his team put in a great deal of hard anddedicated work to bring all these projects to fruition. TheJournal, as ever, was extremely highly valued by members,continuing under the wise editorial guidance of ProfessorDerek Roebuck. I must also mention here the Practice andStandards Committee which continues to produce guidanceand other material of the highest standard under theChairmanship of Alan Limbury which we in the Executivehave been able to use to good effect in promoting andmarketing the Institute throughout the world.The Mediation Fellowship Pathway finally came on stream. Ittook longer than intended, but I hope it will now prove to bea real attraction to senior mediators to join the Institute. Thetender for our core mediation training contract was issued inSeptember; the healthy interest from providers was anencouraging sign of our attractiveness in the mediation trainingmarket. At the year end we had reduced the bidders to afinal short list and, as I write, a sole preferred bidder has beenapproved by the Board of Management.Tony Marks coped admirably through what became anexceptionally busy year for the legal services team, with issuesrelating to the establishment of new branches and branchelection requirements relating to six branches provingunexpectedly complicated. However, this work usefully informedour ongoing revision of the Institute Regulations. Tony wasalso heavily involved in supporting the Panel ManagementGroup’s launch of the Panel Appointments Certificate Scheme.By the end of the year, approximately 550 members of thethree panels had successfully completed their profile on theneutrals database and received their certificates, though 250individual members had not, and were being sought outindividually. Despite some initial technical teething problems,the PACs have certainly improved the efficiency and reliabilityof presidential appointments.A major initiative to increase the visibility of the panels beganwith a joint meeting of IDRS Ltd and the Executive in September.This will be a lengthy process but the initiative is underway.Tony was also involved in the launch during the year of theYorkshire Arbitration Scheme, designed by the North EastBranch with input and guidance from the PMG and the legalteam and with the aim, in part, to address the “catch 22” ofhow non-lawyer arbitrator Fellows in particular achieve thepractice requirements for Chartered status. We encourageall branches to consider whether they too might produce alocal panel scheme on similar lines, subject to appropriatementoring and with the Institute’s prior authorisation.All in all, a busy and productive year. I thanked my teamearlier in this report for their indispensable part in achievingthat result for the Institute. We said farewell in August to MikeBull, who had been our Assistant Accountant for ten years.We welcomed Goran Mitrovic in August, in a new post asfinancial controller, part of our preparations for the retirementin early 2010 of Malcom McMullan, our Finance andAdministration Director, after ten years in the role. Malcomwill be quite irreplaceable as a calm, wise and steadyinginfluence on the governance and Executive, from Trusteesdownwards. I thank him personally for all his help and support.We wish him well in retirement, somewhat relieved that hewill be popping in as a consultant as the new admin teamsettles in.This will be the first time recently that we have been able tofill posts by internal promotion. Clare Hughes will take over asDirector of Administration and Finance, following her highlysuccessful tenure running our room hire business, whoseturnover has increased by 450 per cent since 2004 (and therest of the administration). Room hire has been a largelyunsung achievement of Bloomsbury Square: a businessdeveloped entirely by word-of-mouth marketing, and sosuccessful that we have had to hive it off as a commercialbusiness, but with the Institute retaining its profits. Clare andGiles Andrews, promoted to take over Clare’s administrationrole, deserve a particular vote of thanks for all they haveachieved.The Executive was sad to see the departure at the end ofthe year of Peter Rees QC as Chairman of the Board ofManagement, after two very productive years with him at thehelm. Fortunately, he will remain in contact, not least througha major conference currently being planned for 2011 ofwhich he will be on the organising team. David Cornes, oneof our two mediation representatives on the Board ofManagement, also resigned. His part in pushing forward ourmediation aspirations was quite outstanding and theInstitute owes him a deep debt of gratitude.■Page 14CIArb Annual Report 2009: Reports from the Boards, Committees and Executive – Executive