One of the agents nominated for the role of Propertymark Vice President says he is disappointed with the way the election is being conducted.
Penzance agent and long-time outspoken critic of the industry’s status-quo Chris Wood (pictured, left), managing director of PDQ Properties, says in the past there were half a dozen people who eventually stood for the post after being nominated, and who were then voted on.
He says that this time around he was told nominations for the post would have to be approved by a panel and then interviewed before standing for election.
“I was happy to play along with at first because I assumed there had been a change in the rules – but I can’t see that there have been any,” says Chris.
“I attended the interview and then received a letter that I had been unsuccessful from Christopher Hamer [the current executive chairman] on the day the candidates were announced.”
Not democratic
Chris says he disagrees with this way of filtering candidates and that it was “not democratic”.
“I’ll happily stand and face my peers in a vote, and if I get voted off for being a gobby so-and-so and occasional loose cannon then that’s fine, but this way of doing things only allows ‘yes’ men to go through.”
The reasons given by NAEA Propertymark for Mark’s rejection following his interview are that Chris has only recently re-joined the organisation and therefore “those voting would perhaps question the credibility of Propertymark in putting forward someone with a possible lack of knowledge of the organisational strategy”.
NAEA Propertymark were also worried that if Chris Wood were elected there would not be a “consistent line” between himself and the current President.
“The position of vice-president is an important one for which we need to make sure every candidate is fully aware of the time commitment and responsibilities involved and can fully discharge their duties. It would be inappropriate to comment on individual candidates,” Mark Hayward, NAEA Propertymark Chief Executive, told The Negotiator.
Following the interviews and selection of candidates, voting is now open after the short-list of candidates was emailed to members. Members have until 14th June to respond.
The current Presidents Elect of NAEA and ARLA; Katie Griffin (NAEA) and Sally Lawson (ARLA) will take office as respective Presidents, replacing David Mackie (NAEA) and Nik Madan (ARLA). The current Vice Presidents, Mark Bentley (NAEA) and Claire Lloyd (ARLA), will take office as the Presidents Elect.
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