Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy

CIPFA Volunteers



Former Chair shares Hedley Marshall award

For the first time in its history, two members have shared the Hedley Marshall award which is given annually in recognition of outstanding service to CIPFA regional activities.

The 2011 award winners were announced in front of over 100 regional volunteers at the Conference for the Regions in Cardiff on 16 September.

There were celebrations in both the North East and Midlands regions as George Clark (a former Chair of the North East Region) and Brian Berry (who had served as President of CIPFA Midlands) were named as joint winners of the prestigious award.

In presenting the award, Chris Bilsland spoke about how important volunteer engagement is to CIPFA. And that he was honoured and proud to present the award to two volunteers who between them had worked tirelessly to promote the work of the Institute for over fifty years.

Chris went on to talk about the admirable characteristics that led two very different men to devote time from busy professional and home lives to support other members and students by taking on key roles both nationally and in their region. Foremost amongst these was their long-term view and their concern that new entrants to the profession should engage fully with their professional body. This combined with their capacity for getting things done and natural tenacity allowed them to build teams of committed members spanning all age ranges, across specialisms and organisations within their Regions.

The President cited a quote from George’s nomination form which summed up both of the winners’ concern for the future leaders of the profession: ‘he was always there to support, guide and mentor me and took a front row seat when I was chairing conferences to give a thumbs up of encouragement’.

Members also shared their delight that the pair had won on CIPFA’s social media pages/groups, ceemage (Peter Sullivan, of CIPFA in the North East) tweeted on CIPFA’s twitter page: ‘@CIPFA George has been a treasure for us in the NE for many years. A worthy (joint) winner’. And Judith Savage, this year’s PQ of the year commented: ‘Very worthy winners!,’ on CIPFA’s Facebook page.

Find out more about George and Brian and opportunities for volunteering in the December edition of Spreadsheet. The December edition will also include a full report on the outcomes of the Conference for the Regions.