The CIMA Society of Australia, traditionally supported by what was known as IMCA (the Investment Management Consultants Association) has announced further changes to its structure, adopting a more corporate model for its administration and events program.
CIMA – incorporating IMCA Australia – will do away with its conference committee, has ended its outsourced secretariat arrangement with TAS (the Association Specialists) and has appointed Graham Rich as its executive officer. Rich, a CIMA director, has resigned from its board in order to avoid the perception of conflicts of interest arising from also running his own successful conference and investor education business, the Portfolio Construction Forum. That business will provide the new secretariat services required by CIMA.
Rob Goodlad, the former part-time chief executive, left what was then IMCA before last Christmas. He and some committee members had been critical of TAS’s service and had been looking at ways to improve it.
Pauline Vamos, the CIMA Society of Australia chair, said in a letter to members last week that the organisation’s board was unanimous in the view that it was now better equipped to make a positive difference for all stakeholders into the future.
“What won’t change is that the CIMA Society will continue to focus on being the professional community of Certified Investment Management Analysts, and those who support them (known as ‘peer members’),” she said. “The key aim of the CIMA Society is to provide all members – CIMA certificants, CIMA candidates and peer members – with continuing education services relevant to anyone engaged in any aspect of building multi-manager portfolios, be they a practitioner (for example, multi-manager fund and super fund portfolio manager, investment consultant, fund research analyst, investment adviser) or advocate (such as fund BDM, or fund or super fund executive). And, of course, CIMA Society membership provides a range of opportunities to network and engage with fellow CIMA Society members.”
The CIMA Society of Australia, which has about 320 members, has produced an annual half-day conference in both Sydney and Melbourne, as well as various smaller events throughout the year that go to support its education program.
Graham Rich told members in a separate letter that while the day-to-day operations of CIMA would be handled by Portfolio Construction Forum, which was already running the CIMA education program for Australia and New Zealand, this did not mean that the work of the volunteers in the organisation to produce events and other activities was not appreciated.
“All-in-all, this is a rather verbose foreword to saying a sincere thanks to you all for your contribution to the conference committee. I trust that you don’t take this as an indication that Portfolio Construction Forum doesn’t place a high degree of value on the role of volunteer committee members – in fact, it’s quite the contrary. The conference committee was a key cornerstone to many of the successes of the CIMA Society of Australia, and we’re incredibly grateful for the role that you all played in making this possible,” he said. “We here at Portfolio Construction Forum understand all too well the dedication and hard work required to make a live event come together, so we’re particularly appreciative of the role that the conference committee has played over the years.”
Greg Bright is publisher of Investor Strategy News (Australia)