Samantha Keen, President

Hello everyone. It was an honour to see so many of you at the 2023 Annual Conference, which I co-hosted with our President Elect, Paul Davis. We tackled important issues facing the insolvency profession such as the political and economic landscape, the Russian sanctions regime, fighting tax fraud and of course Sarah Breeden’s illuminating keynote speech on financial stability risk in the corporate sector (view highlights from the day here). I was thrilled to see the level of engagement and participation from our members, which together with the superb contribution from our various speakers and the excellent feedback received, ensured that the conference was a great success.

With my term as IPA President coming to a close next month, I want to take a moment to reflect on the past year and express my gratitude for the opportunity to serve as your President. I am extremely proud of the work we have done and it was a pleasure to meet so many of you, as I toured around much of the country hosting Roadshows. I am particularly proud of IPA’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work, which has focused on working with R3, the Insolvency Service and various members of the profession and academia, to consider what actions we must take to improve diversity in insolvency. I am confident that we will continue to make progress in this area and that the IPA will be a leader in promoting diversity and inclusion in the sector.

I also have been hugely impressed with the quality of work undertaken in the regulatory and membership arena, in what has been yet another challenging year. The dedication of our Board, our various Committees, and our Secretariat to serve the public interest through championing a first-class insolvency profession is remarkable and I’d like to take the opportunity to thank you all for your commitment and contribution.

I look forward to continuing to work to advance the goals of our profession in my final month as President as we look forward to what no doubt will be another extraordinary year!

Samantha