2 February 2005

BPIF promotes Cicely Brown to deputy chief executive

Cicely Brown has been promoted to deputy chief executive of the British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF), one of the UK’s top ten employer organisations and winner of the 2003 Trade Association of the Year. Cicely joined the BPIF in 2002 as head of corporate affairs and joined the BPIF board within six months as director of corporate and external affairs. As deputy chief executive she will be responsible for developing and leading the BPIF’s strategic direction whilst continuing to oversee the organisation’s marketing and PR, Information Services, events and government lobbying and representational activities. Chief executive Michael Johnson explains the promotion: “The BPIF has taken on an ambitious programme of strategic initiatives that will need to be driven by a team of highly capable and experienced executive directors. I am fortunate in having the support of Mike Hopkins in leading on membership development, Andy Brown on standards and partnerships with other industry organisations and Carolyn Payne on finance. These initiatives need careful integration and to achieve this requires that I now also have in place a strong deputy who shares my strategic vision and who has a thorough understanding of our industry and the issues driving it. I am delighted with Cicely’s promotion. It will give her the opportunity to develop her skills within an industry which she has a passion for.” Recent internal restructuring has seen Michael Johnson take direct control of the regions and the BPIF’s Training Business. “As government devolves its activities to the regions it is vital that our regional business centres and membership services get even closer to their respective DTI and DfES agencies whilst networking even more closely with members to match their business needs to available resources. Our regional structure is one of our most powerful assets and it is vital that we employ it effectively to the benefit of members and the regions. A deputy chief executive will enable me to concentrate on operational issues with the confidence that our business strategy is evolving with the changing environment.” The promotion was proposed by BPIF President, Ken Iddon, and was unanimously endorsed by the Board. Iddon commented: “The workload of our Chief Executive, Michael Johnson, had multiplied to an unsustainable level and I was also concerned about the lack of succession planning within the BPIF, should we be affected by a set of unforeseen circumstances. Cicely’s well-deserved promotion will address both these issues and I know that, with the support of her executive colleagues, she will prove to be of even greater benefit to the Federation in her new role.” Business development will be one of Cicely’s first priorities: “Our ten year goal is to have at least 85% of the industry in membership up from current levels of 50-60%. We aim to achieve this by making our value proposition so strong that companies in our marketplace will see membership as essential to ensuring the competitiveness of their businesses. In order to do this we have to build our systems to deliver this both in terms of developing our service offering even further and ensuring that the whole industry understands what we can do for them. I’m convinced we can do this,” she says. Cicely Brown entered the printing industry in 1988 by joining the Maxwell Communications management training scheme at BPCC. After spending six years in different divisions of BPCC she joined Plus Point PR, leaving in 1997 for a role at music packaging specialist CMCS Group plc as head of sales and marketing. Cicely gained a Masters in Business Administration at leading European business school, IMD in 2000. Cicely currently sits on the IPEX Advisory Committee, the CBI’s Trade Association Forum Steering Group and the PrintIT working party.