CfA Annual lecture

The 2012 annual CfA Lecture took place on Monday 9th May in the lavish surroundings of Drapers Hall in central London. The event brought together guests from finance and business, including representatives from Bank of America, Merril Lynch, IBM, and key voluntary and charitable organisations such as National Animal Welfare Trust.

The Lecture, now in its thirteenth year, has hosted a variety of distinguished guest speakers in the past, including Members of Parliament, Lord Mayors and entrepreneurs.

This year's speaker, Sir Hugh Orde, has been a prominent figure in the police service for over three decades, as Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland and most recently, President of the Association of Chief Police Officers. His stirring speech covered topics such as the election of police commissioners and proportionate force, and shared his vision of how the UK's 44 police forces might operate together. Sir Hugh then answered questions from the audience, eloquently tackling topics from knife crime to the place of volunteering in police forces.

Richard Evans, Chief Executive of CfA, said, "Once again I am pleased to say we enjoyed a fantastic turn-out, with guests filling the Drapers Hall. Sir Hugh gave a very frank and honest lecture which informed the current debate on policing, based on his experiences in Northern Ireland, assessing the impact of the localisation agenda on the modern British police service. Each year we are joined by colleagues and partners from the corporate world, political arena and charitable organisations to explore the burning issues which face the charity/not-for-profit sector. Many thanks to all our friends who helped to make the evening a great success."

The lecture was concluded with a farewell by Peter Brown, Chairman of CfA, who will be stepping down from his post at the end of September, when Ray Auvray will take up the position. Peter, who in 1984 was one of the founder trustees of Charity Appointments (which merged with Prospects Recruitment in 2010), will be sorely missed, and we wish him all the best in his future endeavours.