CIMA welcomes new president. (Institute News).

Claire Ighodaro, finance director, broadband, at BT, became president of CIMA worldwide on 14 June at the AGM. As a UK trade ambassador, Ighodaro has led successful overseas trade missions on behalf of the UK Department of Trade and Industry and the Telecoms Industry Association. She is also a board member of the London Employment Coalition. She has been a member of CIMA council since 1995 and is the first woman and the first black person to lead the institute.

"CIMA's unique business perspective is pivotal to our continued success as the qualification of choice for accountants in business, across the public and private sectors," she said. "My career to date demonstrates the opportunities that membership of a chartered professional body brings. It's vital to have a professional badge, particularly in the post-Enron accountancy world, where employers need to be reassured of the highest level of professional ethics and conduct that professional membership requires."

Ighodaro joined British Telecommunications in 1984 as management and development accountant for the southern London district. Between 1988 and 1993 she led the development and implementation of one of the UK's first handheld computer job reporting systems for field engineers. She rose rapidly through BT management levels and in August 2000 she became vice-president, finance, at BT Openworld. She is currently responsible for strategy and business plan formulation, investment planning, commercial direction and control, target-setting, benchmarking and reporting for BT's broadband business.

Ighodaro has sat on numerous CIMA committees, and is currently a member of the executive committee and the appointments committee. She was responsible for BT's sponsorship of the CIMA Business Management Competition, hosted the CIMA Europe Conference in Munich in 1998, acted as spokeswoman for Global Business Week in 2000 and 2001, and is leading the CIMA work experience initiative with secondary schools. She is a co-author of Ethical, Social and Environmental Accountability.