Long hunt for CIM chief executive ends

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has appointed Christine Cryne, executive director of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, as chief executive. She replaces Peter Fisk, who left last year (MW March 8, 2004).

Cryne, who has been at the charity since 2001, will take over from interim chief executive John Coke, who is CIM finance director.

Cryne starts her new role in March and will be responsible for increasing the CIM’s membership and will have overall responsibility for the organisation’s strategy and financial operations. Her appointment comes at a crucial time for the organisation, which recently lost its charitable status after the Charity Commission asked the CIM to look at it again. It was removed from the commission’s register last year. The CIM gained the status in January 2002 but concerns that it breached its charitable covenant by not separating its commercial and charitable activities led Fisk to depart.

Cryne has held a variety of roles in the charities and private sectors. She was marketing director at Help the Aged before joining the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, but she has also worked at Cadbury Schweppes, RHM Foods and IPC.

International chairman Paul Gostick says that Cryne’s commercial, marketing and senior business management experience will be an asset to the CIM. He says: “This experience has been developed in sectors as varied as charities, publishing and packaged goods. She benefits from considerable involvement with organisations that possess similar branch and member networks to our own.”