QS board chair steps down amid row over RICS' future

Stuart Earl, a partner at QS Gleeds, is quitting as chair of the RICS QS board after a row between board members and the institution over the length of his tenure and the future direction of the organisation, Building understands.

Earl, who was elected in March, will not stand for re-election when a board appointed in July by the RICS votes for a new chair this month. Until a rule change this year the QS board was elected by members.

It is believed Earl’s decision was triggered partly by the fact that the new voting system is a secret ballot, but his departure follows months of wrangling between the RICS hierarchy and the 25-strong QS board over concerns about the perceived commercialisation of the institution.

Rider Levett Bucknall chairman David Bucknall is understood to be in the running to replace Earl.

Building was told Earl was elected in the belief he would serve two years as chairman, a view backed by other senior members of the QS board. But the RICS disputes this, and said he was “always acting chair” until it appointed a new board in the summer.

Graeme Hadden, a board member who works for chartered surveyor VB Johnson, said that in March the board “quite clearly elected Stuart Earl for two years”.

There is also disquiet among some QSs that the QS board is now appointed by the RICS rather than voted for by members.

The RICS has responded by releasing parts of the minutes of the March meeting to elect Earl that state the previous chairman Michael Sullivan stepped down to allow Earl to “take over chairman duties … until July 2010”.

It said the minutes cannot be revealed in full because other sections contain “confidential information”.

The dispute is part of the ongoing row between some QS members and the RICS over how the institution is run. In May, under Earl’s chairmanship, the QS board drafted a letter to the institution’s governing council outlining fears that the RICS was being run like a business rather than a members’ organisation and that entry qualifications were being watered down.

Earl declined to comment.