Our guest is Lee Davies, CEO of CIPA, the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys. Lee outlines how they found the four words that describe their purpose and are now the framework for their strategy. He shares what they did to be able to operate to a wider social purpose and describes how he prepared to lead their organisational transformation.
CIPA was founded in 1882 and was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1891. They represent more than 99% of the UK’s 2,400 practicing patent attorneys in industry and private practice. Total membership is over 4,000 and includes trainee patent attorneys, patent paralegals, judges, barristers and other IP professionals.
Lee took up his role as Chief Executive in February 2012. Prior to this, he held the position of Deputy Chief Executive of the Institute for Learning, where he was instrumental in reforming and refocusing professional identity in the further education sector. Lee found himself working in the world of membership by accident in 1999, when he became the Secretary and Executive Director of the Thames & Solent District of the Workers’ Educational Association, without realising it was a membership association (the clue being in the name).
Lee describes himself as an association leader who knows stuff about professional identity, leadership, governance, membership and the like. Lee is a passionate advocate for the association sector, having served as the President and Chair of the Institute of Association Leadership. Lee is the founder of Associations Week, working with the membership senior leaders’ organisation memcom to create an annual celebration of the people who work in membership associations. Lee has experienced association leadership and governance from both sides of the fence, being a Past President and Board member of the Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering (CIPHE).
In his spare time, Lee can be found podcasting about intellectual property (https://cipa.buzzsprout.com/), walking around the South Downs, desperately trying to catch fish from beaches on the Solent or chasing a small rubber ball with a couple yellow dots on it around a squash court, trying to recapture his youth.
Lee Davies