21 December 2006: Security Industry Authority (SIA) Chief Executive, John Saunders, has today announced he is to leave the SIA at the end of the year. The SIA Board accepted John's decision and subsequently approved the appointment of Andy Drane, currently SIA Deputy Chief Executive, as Acting Chief Executive.

In an open letter to the private security industry John said:

"In early October I announced my departure from the SIA and my appointment as Managing Director of CIPFA (Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy). Since then, work has been undertaken in making succession arrangements. This has involved the parallel appointment of the new SIA Chair Baroness Ruth Henig, whose appointment was announced yesterday by the Home Secretary.

I have now agreed with the SIA and Home Office to use the Christmas break as a natural break and I will be moving on from the SIA Chief Executive role at the end of December. Andy Drane will be undertaking the SIA Chief Executive role on an interim basis.

Building and developing the SIA and implementing the regulation has been enormously difficult and demanding, but equally stimulating and immensely rewarding. I am pleased to have contributed, with the industry, to such a productive and positive programme of change. The big challenge, of course, is building on the foundations so that the industry can fulfil its aspirations and achieve the recognition and respect it increasingly deserves.

I will watch developments and progress from the sidelines with enormous fondness and interest. I wish the SIA, the industry and all Stakeholders the very best future."

The full version of John's letter to the industry can be found here.

Notes for Editors:

John Saunders was appointed Chief Executive of the SIA in 2001. John's roots are in commercial and corporate banking where he worked for nearly twenty years in the UK and USA during which he held over 70 corporate directorships.

In 1992 he joined the national Business Link Network and as Chair of the National Forum, worked with the DTI and National Partners over the next eight years to establish the network and overhaul government backed support services to business. John has considerable experience of mergers, re-organisations and the management of change across public/private sector partnerships and has worked with the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum in South Africa and Eastern Europe.

He is a former member/director of the CBI Fit for the Future; 3rd Age Enterprise and Employment; the Competitiveness Working Party; SOLOTEC and the FHA Examination Council. He is co-author of the Corporate University for Business Support study (2000) & the Business Link Brand Review (1999). He was awarded the OBE in 1998 for services to the national Business Link Network.