bfa board of directors approve director general's succession plan

The bfa’s board of directors today confirmed its succession plan for the orderly transition of executive leadership of the bfa in preparation for the planned retirement of its director general, Brian Smart, in June 2016.

The board’s succession plan, agreed at its May meeting and now in place, enables the Association’s head of quality standards and compliance, Andrew Quail, to retire in April 2014 after more than 8 years as champion of the bfa’s standards of good practice in franchising. Under the plan Kelly Chambers has been appointed as head of compliance, managing the bfa’s financial function as well as its quality standards work upon Andrew’s retirement. She takes up her post on 1 October and will work closely with Andrew for six months.

Kelly, who is a law graduate and holds a Masters degree, joins the bfa after more than 10 years in senior franchisor roles. She is a former elected member of the bfa Board where she chaired its Finance and General Purposes Committee.

Chairman of the bfa, Michael Eyre, described the succession plan as “probably the most important task of my elected chairmanship”.

He explained: “It was imperative that the bfa board put in place a succession plan that managed out the risk of the Association’s director general of 23 years, Brian Smart, retiring at much the same time as its head of quality standards and compliance, Andrew Quail.
These two roles, these two people, are the storehouse of the majority of the franchise-specific knowledge and experience that the Association relies on. To lose one such storehouse might be regarded as unfortunate; but to lose two...!”

Brian Smart said: “The appointment of Kelly Chambers to the senior management team alongside head of operations, Pip Wilkins, and head of communications, Tom Bannister, offers me and the board a strong and energetic team to take on the many objectives that the bfa and our members have, including the essential standards work that, all too soon, Andrew Quail will be stepping down from.

“The succession plan also gives me the best part of 3 years to ensure that the board has real scope amongst its own staff for candidates, to join those from outside, to step up to succeed me as the Association’s next director general.”

By agreeing and announcing these plans in advance, the Association has moved to facilitate the handover to new leaders as and when the times come. This strategy will help ensure that the work carried out by Brian Smart and Andrew Quail on behalf of ethical UK franchising continues without interruption.