Board Digest - July 2025

We began, as now usual, with a report from the President of the PFS Board and also from Group Committees and international representatives. We heard, in particular, of the success of the PFS Summer Roadshows, where attendance had been good and feedback excellent. We also benefitted from discussion of the plans for the PFS ‘Pathway to the Profession’ launch event, which took place the day after our Board meeting, and the PFS AGM, which is due to take place on 25 September. Separately, we were delighted to learn of the international momentum that has continued to build over the first six months of the year, with further positive discussions having been held with policy makers across the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Closer to home, we reflected on the very positive feedback we had received from attendees of our Network Conference, held in Scotland in June. We have subsequently issued a ‘souvenir’ edition of The Journal to capture the sessions and material covered, as well as answers to all the questions we received on the day. You can find these here: The Journal + Q&A.

We moved to discuss our Chief Executive’s report, including the work being undertaken in relation to thought-leadership and the evolution of membership of the Professional Standards Committee (PSC). We have recorded a podcast with some of the new PSC members, which you can find here. Speaking of evolutions, we have now renamed our ‘CII Futures’ programme of work ‘Professional Pathways’. The agreement of this change preceded a detailed discussion of the extensive stakeholder engagement that has been completed as we move forward with our plans to modernise how we build the professional skills of all our members. We have also been actively discussing how our rules for awarding Corporate Chartered status might transform to make it an even more powerful strategic asset for firms to enhance growth, differentiate themselves, and gain recognition in a changing market. In addition, we were pleased to see some initial thinking around changes to our membership proposition. We will have more to say on this in coming months.

We will publish CII and PFS Annual Reports and Financial Statements ahead of our Annual General Meetings in September and October respectively, so July is always an important moment to sign-off these documents for subsequent circulation to members. The documents will speak for themselves in a few weeks, but it is fair to say that the CII Group had a successful 2024, which has been maintained into the start of 2025.

As we drew to conclusion, we confirmed several governance matters, including the potential for CII Group Board members to be invited to complete a third term of office in specific circumstances. This change will provide additional flexibility to help maintain the stability of the organisation’s leadership over time. We completed our meeting by each expressing our personal thanks to Trevor Edwards, Executive Director, People and Resources, for his long service and wise counsel. Trevor leaves us in early August, and we wish him and his family well as they return to the Caribbean. Taking on some of his responsibilities is Stuart Hamill, who started a few weeks ago as our new Head of Finance.

We recognise that it is now the school summer holidays here in the UK, with members and colleagues elsewhere in the world also enjoying periods of relaxation and reflection. I wish you all well in the knowledge the CII will hold its next Board meeting on 25 September. In the meantime, we have a position open for a new CII Group Board member (Non-Executive Director) and Chair of our Nomination and Remuneration Committee. If you would be interested in applying, you can find more information here.