VC to Chair CMI Board of Companions

Professor Bob Cryan’s appointment comes on the back of the University aiming to become the first higher education institution in the world where all its managers have achieved the qualification of Chartered Manager with the Chartered Management Institute.

UNIVERSITY of Huddersfield Vice-Chancellor Professor Bob Cryan is to be the new Chair of the Board of Companions of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and has become a member of its Board of Trustees.  The appointment has been hailed as a “great milestone” by the CMI’s Chief Executive.

The University is the first higher education institution in the world to aim for all its managers to achieve the qualification Chartered Manager (CMgr), as awarded by the CMI.

This means that 350 of the University’s managers will qualify as CMgr, and several have also achieved the higher honours awarded by the CMI, including Fellowships.  The top honour is Companionship, held by Professor Bob Cryan and several of his senior colleagues.

The first members of staff to become CMgr received certificates at a ceremony presided over by the University’s Chancellor, HRH The Duke of York.  The CEO of the CMI, Anne Francke, was a special guest and she praised the initiative taken by Professor Cryan, stating that “organisations that invest effectively in management outperform the rest, boosting their results by 20 per cent and their productivity by a third”.  

Now Professor Cryan succeeds Patrick Dunne, who has served as Chair of the CMI Board of Companions and as a CMI Trustee since 2013.

“The Chartered Management Institute sets the Gold standard internationally for management and leadership,” said Professor Cryan.

“To join the CMI Board of Trustees and to be appointed as Chair of the CMI Board of Companions is both an honour and a privilege,” he continued, and added that he was looking forward to working with Anne Francke and with Bruce Carnegie-Brown, President of CMI, in order to “further the CMI’s mission of increasing the number and standard of professionally-qualified managers, both in the UK and internationally.”   

Announcing the appointment of Professor Cryan, Bruce Carnegie-Brown said: “Bob brings a wealth of experience from across the education sector and has a proven track record of building successful partnerships between business and education.  He is an inspirational leader and will be a huge asset to CMI.”

CEO Ann Francke said: “The appointment of Bob, an award-winning leader, represents a great milestone for CMI as we seek to better engage our membership community and drive up professional standards in management and leadership.  Commitment to high quality and impactful leadership has always been both a passion and at the heart of Bob’s achievements throughout his career and I look forward to working with Bob in the years ahead.”

Over the course of his career Professor Cryan’s many achievements include becoming the UK’s youngest professor of engineering, at the age of 30, and subsequently the youngest leader of a UK University upon his appointment to the role of Vice-Chancellor at Huddersfield in 2007.

Recognition of his achievements as a leader have included The Guardian’s Inspiring Leader Award in 2013 and The Telegraph’s Educate North Inspiring Leader Award in 2015.  Under his leadership, the University of Huddersfield has also been recognised through the Higher Education Academy’s first ever Global Teaching Excellence Award and a Gold rating in the 2017 Teaching Excellence Framework, The Daily Telegraph Educate North New University of the Year 2015/16, a Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2015 and the Times Higher University of the Year 2013/14.