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I am very pleased to announce that Stephen O'Connor, a Past President of the Institute, has won international recognition by being appointed to the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB).
The appointment, for a three-year term to commence in January 2007, was announced today at an FPSB Council meeting in Hong Kong. (Stephen O'Connor and I are currently attending the meeting as New Zealand's delegates).
Stephen's achievement, a first for New Zealand, crowns a continuous involvement in the global financial planning movement on the part of current and former Institute representatives over many years. This goes back at least to the days Barry Stewart and Rodger Spiller (former National IAFP Chairs), through the merger process to former FPIA President Denys Wright and Bernard Gresham, and a significant contribution made by former FPIA CEO, Phillip Matthews, to today.
Stephen O'Connor's appointment is a mark of the genuine respect that Stephen has earned among our international colleagues during the three years he has served as one of our delegates on the FPSB Council, but it also recognises the commitment of those who have gone before him.
Stephen was one of four new members appointed to the nine-member FPSB Board. The opening drew a world-class field of ten candidates: financial planners, officials and academics; from the US, Canada, South Africa, China and India. The role involves a significant time commitment, estimated at more than six weeks of unpaid work a year.
FPSB (www.fpsb.org) is an international not-for-profit association committed to establishing, upholding and promoting worldwide professional standards in financial planning. It also controls the widely recognised CFPCM marks - financial planning's "gold standard" - outside the US. The CFPCM marks are established in more than 20 countries, and earlier this year the FPSB announced that there were now more than 100,000 CFPCM professionals globally.
Current FPSB projects include fostering the emergence of professional financial planning in the huge markets of India and China, and developing of global competency standards for financial planning.
This is a very proud moment for Stephen, and one that all of us can share; I know you will all join me in wishing him the very best in his new commitment.
Simon Hassan CFPCM CLU
President |
