26 | Association Q&A Paul Owen, CEO, AIPP
WORDS | Alex Evans
www.opp.org.uk | APRIL 2010
Outgoing man
A popular and pro-active ambassador for the AIPP, Paul Owen made an impact on trade and consumers alike. OPP talks to him about his legacy as he leaves to take up a new post outside the industry
they’re happy to benefi t from it.
Before leaving to take up his new role as managing director of Natural Training - a
specialist consultancy that includes the likes of EMC, Dell, Unisys, Discovery Channel and Eurosport among its clients - Paul Owen, outgoing CEO of the Association of International Property Professionals (AIPP), gave OPP his exit interview. After four years at the helm of the AIPP, he talks about what he’s been most and least proud of, and why trade bodies don’t always have to bear their teeth to show they have them.
You’ve been chief executive of the AIPP since its launch in 2006. What have you achieved in that time?
Our most recent survey found that 88% of consumers feel reassured by membership of the AIPP. My biggest achievement has been driving awareness of the AIPP and getting self-regulation of the market to be widely and seriously considered. Also,
there are 320 member companies who are seeing a benefi t from something that didn’t exist 4 years ago. One of our members told me recently that one of their clients chose the area they wanted to buy in then checked the list of companies in the AIPP to fi nd one specialising in that region and chose him. He described AIPP membership as a credible foot in the door. Credibility and narrowing the search are the biggest commercial benefi ts for AIPP members.
What are you most proud of from your tenure as chief executive?
It has to be our disciplinary procedure. No-one in the industry thought that we’d kick out members but we have – eight in total. Our mediation procedure is free, and non-members can also benefi t if their complaints about members are upheld – and often have been. Arguments about why they won’t join the AIPP seem a bit empty when
But isn’t mediation very time-consuming for a relatively small trade association, and has there been a backlash to the expulsions?
Once a month we have a day of disciplinary hearings, and we hold informal mediation meetings wherever possible to try to resolve complaints. Mediation is often very successful. It’s fair, transparent and effi cient but we are trying to outsource it. We need to try to balance value for members and a responsibility to the consumer. We are, fi rst and foremost, a trade body but there is value in credibility.
How do you answer criticism that being forced to expel members is simply a failure in your vetting procedure?
It’s always disappointing to have to kick out a member, because you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t. It’s not about vetting. Circumstances change, and sometimes people break the rules so you need a punishment big enough to deter them. My hallelujah moment was
a big developer who had been recommended for expulsion that went to appeal. An agent was about to do a million pound business deal for them but wouldn’t work with a developer that wasn’t an AIPP member. The developer resolved the
complaints because being a member of the AIPP was too commercially valuable.
The AIPP seems to be a bit isolated from other international trade associations. In hindsight, do you think you could have done more to integrate it with other bodies and create more networking value for members?
I would ask what the value of linking really is. Is it just the swapping of logos, as it seems to be with some association alliances? There’s never been a compelling enough case to form an alliance but we have started conversations with other trade bodies in the last month to look at the tangible benefi ts of an alliance. Criticism about this particular
aspect of the AIPP tends to come from those on the committees of bodies who don’t show the benefi ts of alliance. Sharing information and creating networking events is all well and good but where does it lead?
The AIPP has been criticised for only regulating agents and not the companies they sell for. Why are there so few developers in the AIPP?
The AIPP was set up to regulate the sale of property, not the building of it; but if a complaint was upheld against a developer member for their professional conduct, they would be punished under our code. We also
No-one in the industry thought that we’d kick out members but we have – eight in total. Our mediation procedure is free, and non-members can also benefi t if their complaints about members are upheld – and often have been.
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