Priorities for New RICS Director
Leonie Austin, the new Director of Public Affairs at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors spelled out three main priorities in her new role when she addressed the IBP AGM.
She intended to help the organisation to build on its relationship with government , punch up its dealings with the media and address its dialogue with its own extensive membership. Leonie Austin, who has joined RICS after a three-year spell as Director of Communications at the Cabinet Office and, before that, as Chief Press Officer at the Department of Trade and Industry, brings a wealth of top-level experience to bear on all aspects of her new work.
She will be able to influence RICS policy on government legislation, relations with the business community and the general public in essential areas like consumer protection. In particular she wants to raise the profile of the organisation both through the media and through promoting the profession to the general public which uses its services and as a career prospect, through education and training, to produce the surveyors of the future.
Certainly the effectiveness of her presentation to the AGM, her first public statement since taking up her new role, indicates a good move by the RICS. With 110,000 members based in over 120 countries around the world covering everything from major construction projects to surveying the seabed for minerals, from managing agricultural land to auctioning antiques or protecting the environment, Leonie Austin has a daunting brief and she is clearly determined to bring the whole weight of her experience to bear as quickly as possible.
Leonie Austin, the new Director of Public Affairs at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors spelled out three main priorities in her new role when she addressed the IBP AGM.
She intended to help the organisation to build on its relationship with government , punch up its dealings with the media and address its dialogue with its own extensive membership. Leonie Austin, who has joined RICS after a three-year spell as Director of Communications at the Cabinet Office and, before that, as Chief Press Officer at the Department of Trade and Industry, brings a wealth of top-level experience to bear on all aspects of her new work.
She will be able to influence RICS policy on government legislation, relations with the business community and the general public in essential areas like consumer protection. In particular she wants to raise the profile of the organisation both through the media and through promoting the profession to the general public which uses its services and as a career prospect, through education and training, to produce the surveyors of the future.
Certainly the effectiveness of her presentation to the AGM, her first public statement since taking up her new role, indicates a good move by the RICS. With 110,000 members based in over 120 countries around the world covering everything from major construction projects to surveying the seabed for minerals, from managing agricultural land to auctioning antiques or protecting the environment, Leonie Austin has a daunting brief and she is clearly determined to bring the whole weight of her experience to bear as quickly as possible.