Alasdair Walker has stepped down as panel member and chairman of the financial planning panel at the Personal Finance Society (PFS) citing the ongoing dispute between the PFS and the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII).
Walker is the second prominent member of the organisation to resign in a week following PFS president Caroline Stuart who tendered her resignation four days ago, issuing an explosive statement detailing her reasons and highlighting the strain of the situation.
Late last month the CII launched a bid to takeover the PFS, a move which it said was necessary due to “serious and significant” governance failures it alleges occurred at the PFS and action which it gave just 15 minutes notice of to the PFS CEO.
Stuart responded by accusing the CII of using “baseless” allegations of governance failures and “bullying and intimidation” to justify accessing PFS funds to prop up the body. For its part, the CII called Stuart’s claims “deeply misleading”.
However, taking to LinkedIn, Alasdair Walker, who has volunteered with the CII and PFS for most of the last decade, said he was “deeply disturbed” by the behaviour of the CII and did not feel he could carry on supporting the PFS as a volunteer while there were so many unanswered questions about the CII’s “hostile takeover attempt”.
“Having read Caroline Stuart’s harrowing account of her time as president of the PFS board, I cannot support an organisation who feels it is fair or right to apply those kinds of pressures to the volunteer workforce it depends on,” Walker continued.
“All PFS members should be concerned and interested in what is happening at CII head office.
“It may seem like boardroom politics and detached from your day job but it has the potential to severely impact the future of our profession and actively work against the hard work we are all doing,” Walker added.
Health & Protection has contacted Alisdair Walker and the CII for comment.