London, 10 January 2013

The year ahead

Happy New Year. I’m extremely excited about my year as President of the CIPR and I want to thank everyone who voted for me and everyone else who I know will help to make every minute of it worthwhile and enjoyable.

I’ve been around a long time at the Institute, having been a member for over 20 years, a fellow for 14 and a Chartered Practitioner for three and I was particularly thrilled to be among the first group to be given that award. Over all that time I have seen a large number of excellent presidential examples to follow, which is a bit daunting as so many have done such a lot with the role but I’m going to do my best too and I hope to be effective.

My main purpose is to put the profession firmly into the frame. Our only USP nationally and internationally is the Charter and so I intend to use every opportunity to encourage business leaders to want the best and to actively seek Chartered Practitioners to lead their departments and advise their boards. That means that we will need far more people to become Chartered and stand up for all that it involves.

We have so many growing opportunities for our work. The value of reputation is being recognised increasingly and with developments in social media our tool-box has grown impressively to help us build and maintain the relationships that have always been the cornerstone of our trade.

All wise leaders would always choose Chartered Accountants to look after their finances and so with reputation being recognised for its vulnerability as well as its high value we should be able to convince them to make the right choice there too.

As part of the purpose to highlight what PR can do I intend to adopt a theme for the year, which I’ll be discussing at the Council meeting on 24 January and hoping that many of you in the groups will join in with the opportunity to use our PR skills to make a difference. More very soon!

Sue Wolstenholme FCIPR, CIPR President

Notes to editors

About the CIPR

The CIPR is the professional body for public relations practitioners in the UK. With over 9,500 members involved in all aspects of public relations, it is the largest body of its type in Europe. The CIPR advances the public relations profession in the UK by making its members accountable through a code of conduct, developing policies, representing its members and raising standards through education and training.

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The year ahead