CIPR in hunt for new CEO

Deputy director-general and most recently acting director general Ann Mealor will remain at the institute as interim CEO until the end of September, and will then leave. A new post of director of policy and comms is also being created to help the CIPR engage more effectively with members.

James Petre has been appointed to the new post of director of professional development and membership, and Elspeth Graham will take on the new role of director of commercial.

The institute has been working with external advisers for the past six months to benchmark its structure against comparable organisations.

Separately, The Environment Agency was crowned double winner at this year's CIPR Excellence Awards on Wednesday night, after scooping prizes for both crisis communications and the special award for measurement and evaluation.

Other winners included Verdant Consulting, which collected the outstanding small PR consultancy award, and the Met Police for outstanding in-house PR team.