Dr Church, a former top waste official at Defra joined CIWM in October 2016 and is moving to a new position in the environmental arena as a chief executive. He will join the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining in London. Sarah Poulter, presently group director of membership and funding, will take on the role of interim CEO.
Chris Murphy remains as deputy chief executive. [updated 26 July]
Redundancies
Other staff members are also understood to be leaving or have left the Institution with some redundancies being made in an effort to reduce overheads.
Defra
Dr Colin Church, a former environmental quality director at Defra, replaced CIWM chief executive Steve Lee who had been with CIWM for 13 years.
Dr Church’s departure to a new post away from CIWM will represent one of the shortest periods of tenure at the Institution.
At the CIWM he has overseen a radical restructuring of the Institution which has been running at a financial loss over recent years although it hopes to return to profit in 2018.
Within the sector Dr Church’s departure has caused some surprise especially as CIWM had hailed his appointment in 2016 as coming from a “very strong field of candidates”.
Waste strategy
At CIWM, working with policy chief Pat Jennings, Dr Church has been responsible for considerable input by CIWM into the forthcoming Resources and Waste Strategy.
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