CIM replaces interim ceo with ex-chairman Wilkes

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has appointed Rod Wilkes as chief executive, following a six-month search.

Sonia Modray, the body’s finance director, who has been acting chief executive since previous chief executive Christine Cryne left last July, has resigned and will leave in March. It is understood that she has no job to go to.

Wilkes, who has a background in the construction industry, has been associated with the CIM for many years, and was its chairman from 1993 to 1994. He has also served on its senate.

He will be the organisation’s fourth chief executive in three years. Cryne, who joined the CIM in March 2005, was herself recruited after a long search to find a successor to Peter Fisk, who left suddenly in April 2004 after only 14 months in the post. Cryne has since become director for Consumer Direct at the Office of Fair Trading, while Fisk now works as a management consultant.

Modray has been the CIM’s finance director for seven years, and was at one point thought to be in line for the chief executive’s job. A CIM insider claims, however, that she was not interested in the post.

Last October, the CIM named Katherine Tickle as managing director of CIM Holdings, the body’s commercial arm (MW October 19, 2006), and 18 months ago it named former News

International and Which? marketer Geoff Hurst as its marketing director (MW August 25, 2005), filling a role which had been empty for three years.

Wilkes’ appointment will be announced at the CIM’s AGM on Thursday at the organisation’s HQ in Cookham, Berkshire.