CM September 2020

EDITOR’S COLUMN
Changing of the Guard
Sean Feast FCICM
Managing Editor
WHILE there may have
not been a great
deal of live sport to
entertain the masses
during the first half
of COVID, we seem
to have made up for it since with all of
the serious sports – football, cricket, golf
and darts – making a welcome comeback.
(Wait a minute. Darts? A sport? I like the
old rule that says if you can smoke a fag
or drink a pint while you’re doing it, it
cannot be a sport. That said, have you ever
refereed Sunday League football?). There
is also comforting talk about transfer
windows and new signings to make us
think that we’ll wake up tomorrow and
find it’s all just been a bad dream. West
Ham weren’t in a relegation battle at all
and Watford stayed up.
And while on the subject of new signings
(did you see what I did there? Seamless),
there has been a complete changing of
the guard in our own world of credit.
Sue Chapple FCICM, the interim Chief
Executive of the CICM has been confirmed
in the role on a permanent basis, following
the move by the Institute’s previous star
striker (or should that be defender?) Philip
King FCICM to become Interim Small
Business Commissioner. Similarly in the
Credit Services Association (CSA), Peter
Wallwork has finally hung up his fancy
boots to make way for Chris Leslie, a
seasoned battler from the world of politics
who, judging from his Twitter feed, is no
stranger to crowd banter.
We will meet Sue and Chris in future
issues, but I didn’t want the moment to
pass without paying tribute to Philip and
Peter. Philip, as our members will know,
has been at the vanguard of promoting
the credit profession from the start, and
leading the Institute to be recognised
with Chartered status. His achievements
are legion, and too many to list here, but
there are few people who have had such
a profound impact on championing bestpractice
credit management and getting
those in Government and beyond to sit up
and take notice. It would have been easy
for Philip to put his feet up while watching
his beloved Spurs, sipping a non-alcoholic
cocktail. Instead he is continuing the
battle as Interim SBC, and by all accounts
shaking a few trees.
Peter too has been at the helm of the
CSA during a great period of transition and
change and is to be congratulated on a job
well done. As the ‘face’ of the CSA for over
a decade, he brought a calm authority to
the role that countered so well the cliché
of the baseball bat-wielding thug that
lazy journalists like to depict. His tenure
included the challenge of authorisation
and a new regulator, and patiently and
diligently educating and informing those
in power about the critical role that his
members play in the economy, and the
lessons the public sector can learn from
their private sector colleagues.
I am lucky enough to have worked with
both men, and to be able to call them
friends. I wish them the very best for the
future. I have a feeling in both cases it may
be farewell but not good-bye.
Advancing the credit profession / www.cicm.com / September 2020 / PAGE 4