New leadership starts in January for the 20,000-member group.

The industry body representing those working in family inheritance and succession planning welcomed a new CEO yesterday in Mark Walley, who will take over in January to help shape future direction of the global members group. The move comes shortly after the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners announced a new global chairman, as reported here.

Walley replaces George Hodgson who is retiring at the end of the year after almost 10 years with the association. Hodgson joined as director of policy in 2009, later serving as deputy chief executive before taking up the top post in 2016. Wishing him a happy retirement, the group acknowledged his contribution in building STEP into a global network of more than 20,000 members with branches in 50 countries.

Walley began his career at Barclays, where he spent 25 years, rising to chief operating officer of Barclays Wealth’s International Personal and Premier Banking Division.

STEP hired him from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, where he served as managing director responsible for growth in the EMEA region. Before that he spent time at ifs School of Finance overseeing its education programme as director of corporate development, and before that as regional director of EMEA for Cohen Brown Management Group.

Chair-elect, Simon Morgan said Walley’s credentials managing a major international organisation make him ideally equipped to build on STEP’s position as the “leading global professional body in its field”.

Separately, this news service is a media partner at the forthcoming Switzerland and Liechtenstein STEP conference to be held in January next year.