The Chartered Insurance Institute’s chief executive will step down from his position at the end of the month, earlier than previously planned.
Earlier this year, it was announced that Alan Vallance would leave his position as chief executive in Spring 2024 to take up the equivalent role at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
However, in an internal announcement heard by FT Adviser, Vallance said he would instead be stepping down at the end of this month (December 2023).
He said: “I’m going to finish up at the end of December although I will be around for a short period of time afterwards, during the time from the end of December to January 1 or 2.
“The board has decided to ask Gill [White] to take over as acting chief executive until a permanent CEO [is found].
“I will stand back gracefully over the next few days into the Christmas break.”
Vallance was appointed to the role in April last year and took over officially from August.
He joined the CII from the Royal Institute of British Architects where he worked for seven years and was chief executive.
A CII spokesperson confirmed Vallance will leave the CII at the end of December and, at that point, Gill White, the CII’s current chief customer officer, will become acting chief executive for the CII group.
“A management group drawn from the existing executive leadership team and senior leadership team will support Ms White until the appointment of a new chief executive,” a spokesperson said.
CII and PFS dispute
It has been a year since the dispute between the CII and the Personal Finance Society began and the CII is still battling with resignations and senior management moves.
For example, it was only last week that the PFS announced that its interim chairperson Andrew Briscoe was terminated as director.
Briscoe had spent only five months in the role as he was appointed around the same time Edward Grant was made an institute director to the PFS board.
But this was not the only senior staff member to leave in recent times as back in 2021 Sian Fisher announced that she would step down after more than six years at the helm of the CII.
The troubles came to a head in December 2022 when the CII announced it was taking control of the PFS board amid "failed mediation".
'As previously reported, this led to members of the PFS board hitting back at the CII after its meeting was rendered “inquorate” due to insufficient CII appointed directors, leading the institute to accuse the PFS of “another contravention” of board confidentiality.
Since then, there have been exits and appointments at the group.
In October, FT Adviser delved in to what had been spent on trying to resolve problems between the two bodies.
In its full-year results ending December 31 2022, the PFS reported total operating expenses of £7.99mn in 2022, of which £0.85mn was towards expert legal and financial advice on the back of the CII saga.
