Former CBRE veteran to head up new group at institution
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has announced the chair of its new board as it begins to implement the new governance structure recommended by the Bichard review.
The independent review of the RICS, led by former senior civil servant Michael Bichard, was ordered after a governance scandal at the 155-year old body and set in motion sweeping changes to its governance.
This included the establishment of a new majority-member board overseeing day-to-day operations and delivering and executing the strategic plan of the governing council.
The organisation announced today that it will be chaired by Martin Samworth, a surveyor who spent nearly 40 years working for CBRE before retiring at the end of 2020 to take up a number of chair and non-executive director roles at specialist and start-up companies.
In his RICS role, he will be responsible for approving and providing advice on the RICS business plan, as well as reviewing proposed changes to constitutional documents, including changes to the Royal Charter, which was also recommended in the review.
The new structure also sees parity for the new RICS Board with the Standards and Regulation Board, with both accountable to Governing Council, but with a clear separation of RICS’ regulatory functions and its membership work.
>> RICS governance scandal: Coverage all in one place
>> Bichard’s key recommendations, explained
The Bichard review was a response to Alison Levitt QC’s 2021 report on the governance scandal in 2018-19, which led to four high-profile resignations last year and revealed widespread resentment among the institution’s membership.
The intentions of the review included returning control of the RICS to its members, re-affirming that it is first and foremost a professional organisation and not a commercial enterprise, and creating a governance structure which is clearer, simpler and more accountable.
The RICS is set to hold elections for its restructured governance council in the first half of next year, with new members set to be in place by the start of July.
There will be a total of 28 seats in the new council, three more than currently, with unelected members consisting of three seats for the presidential team – elected by the governing council – two independent appointed seats and two co-opted appointed seats.
Who is Martin Samworth
The RICS new chair began his real estate career at CBRE as a graduate and assistant surveyor in investment, before qualifying as a chartered surveyor.
He worked as the company for more than three decades, holding senior positions including head of investment and managing director of markets, managing director of the UK business, and chief executive and then chairman of the advisory business across APAC and EMEA.
After retiring from the firm at the end of 2020, he has taken roles at Ferguson Partners, RE5Q, Dominvs Group and Alteration Earth PLC.
Following his appointment, Samworth said RICS needed to be “forward thinking with a clear identity and an authoritative voice” and said that as a member of the body for 35 years, he had always regarded membership as an “honour and a privilege”.
“It is my aim to make sure that our membership feel the same, and to facilitate an engaged and rewarded profession who gain as much from us as we do from them,” he said.
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