ICA on the rack over top vacancy
The English ICA has come under an unprecedented attack by a senior institute official over its handling of the recruitment for the post of technical director.
In an impassioned letter, published on page 15, Douglas Thompson, a principal with the Shrewsbury-based firm of Lloyd, Thompson & Earl, and the immediate past president of the Staffs, Salop and Wolverhampton District Society, spoke of his disappointment and confusion at the institute’s handling of the affair, following his own rejected application for the post.
He said the institute had failed to make up its mind about the kind of applicant it was looking for. ‘They are looking for the impossible. They want a high-profile candidate, but are only offering a z100,000 salary and they haven’t found anybody yet. Are they looking for someone with a knighthood?’
But he reserved his strongest criticism for the technical directorate which he said had failed in recent years to set the technical agenda for the profession.
English ICA chief executive Andrew Colquhoun defended the institute’s handling of the affair, but admitted that finding a suitable replacement for the recently-departed technical director Bruce Picking had proved difficult. However, Colquhoun conceded that a priority for the institute was to boost the standing of the technical directorate. ‘On that point, you will find that the technical directorate under Graham Ward and myself are at one with Douglas,’ he said.
See letters and leader, p15.
