Military man is crowned Britain’s top achieving manager

Neale Moss CMgr, a Colonel in the Ministry of Defence’s Joint Helicopter Command based near Ipswich has been awarded the top prize in this year’s CMI Chartered Manager of the Year competition at a national awards ceremony in London. The Chartered Manager of the Year award is presented annually to the manager who can prove use of excellent management and leadership skills and integrity to bring about significant positive change in the organisation they work for. All competition entrants will have previously achieved Chartered Manager of the Year accreditation from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).

Neale, who is presently based at Wattisham Flying Station, near Ipswich, is currently Commander of the UK’s Attack Helicopter Force and Wattisham Flying Station, won this year’s competition by demonstrating outstanding leadership skills in a highly stressed and quickly-changing environment, and implementing several new initiatives which have enhanced Ministry of Defence performance.

Twelve Chartered Managers were shortlisted in this year’s competition – all of whom were singled out in their nation, region or sector as achieving management and leadership results above and beyond the requirements of their role. Neale battled for the top prize against Chartered Managers across a range of sectors, including health, justice and technology, who had been selected for their expertise and skills in demonstrating resilience, adding significant value to their business, creativity and innovation, culture change and outstanding leadership.

At the awards ceremony, which was part of CMI’s annual management and leadership conference, Neale said: “I’m thrilled to have won this accolade. Managing and leading in the military is both challenging and rewarding and it is great to have my achievements, and those of the people I work with, recognised by CMI. I think it is important that managers confirm their professional status, especially when working alongside other Chartered professions such as accountants and engineers. It affords us a parity that has long been missing.

“Gaining Chartered Manager status was a valuable learning process and has given me more confidence in my managerial and leadership abilities and helped me to recognise that I have hugely transferable skills which can be used in many other environments. This is personally important to me as, next year, I will be leaving the Army after 36 years. Chartered Manager is a prestigious career-defining scheme and I am delighted and honoured to have won this award.”

Neale was praised by the judges for the wide range of responsibilities he took on as part of his role and the significant impact he has made in a number of areas. This included setting up a charitable foundation that raised £300,000 and built five schools in three years in Afghanistan, and increasing helicopter operational capacity by 60% in just 12 months.

David Cook CMgr, who won the prize in 2010 and helped judge this year’s competition, said of Neale’s achievements: “We all felt that Neale should be honoured with the award due to the excellent leadership he has shown in a complex, high stress and fast-changing environment. Neale demonstrated a commendable commitment to continuous professional development and brought about changes that involved securing the support of a wide variety of international stakeholders to inform strategic decisions.”

Narinder Uppal, Director of Awarding Body at CMI, said: “Congratulations to Neale on this huge success; he was an incredibly strong candidate. Achieving Chartered Manager status shows that a manager is making a significant contribution to improving the performance of the organisation they work in. To be shortlisted in the Chartered Manager of the Year competition, let alone win it, means a manager is performing at the very top of their game and is not only the best in the UK but is up there with the best managers from around the world. Neale’s example is one that CMI is proud to recognise and that other managers should aspire to – he is the kind of manager UK organisations need if we are to address the current culture of bad management which is damaging UK business.”

To become a Chartered Manager, hopefuls undergo vigorous assessment in areas of practice including meeting customer needs and managing change. Research shows that the estimated lifetime economic benefit associated with holding professional qualifications amounts to £81,000 over the course of their career*, proving the value of the scheme and others like it. Chartered Manager also enables employers to benchmark the quality of their management teams against nationally accredited standards. 

For more information on Chartered Manager accreditations, visit: www.managers.org.uk/cmgr.

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Further information:

Harriet Fitzgerald/ Shona Mathew  

Telephone: 0207 010 0828 / 0207 010 0884  

Email: Harriet.Fitzgerald@kindredagency.com / Shona.Mathew@Kindredagency.com

NOTES TO EDITORS

*Labour Force survey, analysed by the Consultative Committee for Professional Management Organisations, 2010

• CMI is the only chartered professional body dedicated to raising standards of management and leadership across all sectors of UK commerce and industry. CMI is the founder of the National Occupational Standards for Management and Leadership and sets the standards that others follow.

• By setting minimum professional standards – built into our qualifications, membership criteria and learning resources – we recognise individual capability and give employers confidence in their managers’ performance.

• As a membership organisation, CMI has also been providing forward-thinking advice and support to individuals and businesses, for more than 50 years. As the only organisation to offer qualifications from Level 2 (GCSE) to Level 8 (PhD), CMI is committed to equipping individuals with the skills and knowledge to be exceptional managers and leaders.

• Qualifications and accreditations such as Chartered Manager, combined with products such as CMI’s Continuous Professional Development scheme and the online support resource, ManagementDirect, support the development of management and leadership excellence across the UK.

• Through in-depth research and policy surveys of its 90,000 individual and 450 corporate members, CMI maintains its position as the premier authority on key management and leadership issues