Condolences – Peter Thomas RIP

It is with great sorrow that we received the sad news.

On behalf of the Irish board of the Institute and its members we extend our condolences to Peters family, friends and colleagues.

Peter’s international family is in mourning, though we know we should be celebrating his life, his contributions to our profession, his everlasting wisdom, and his love and passion for the CMC accreditation and its community.

We would like to present the words of our wise interntional colleague, Brian Ing, who worked with Peter closely over the years of his volunteering with IC and ICMCI.

“I have known Peter for some 25 years during which I have admired and respected a man who quietly with good humour, patience and above all understanding achieved greatly without seeking the credit for what he had done. I am proud to have called him a friend as well as a colleague.

Initially, I met Peter within committees for the Institute of Management Consultancy (IMC) where his influence helped the body develop and progress. He never held the most senior position and later with The International Council of Management Consulting Institutes (ICMCI) was referred to by many overseas colleagues as “The best President IMC UK never had”.

With ICMCI in 2001 he made his greatest possible impact on our profession worldwide. ICMCI were developing a single qualification that covered all the countries involved. Many of the member countries, the UK included, had developed their own criteria (typically a competence framework) and assessment methods for recognising that an individual was a competent, professional, trustworthy management consultant. Peter developed, and by quiet persuasion, convinced all the members to allow their approaches to be examined by representatives from other countries. He convinced them that his proposed “equivalence principle” was a nonthreatening arrangement for them to be tested against the standards set by ICMCI and for all other countries to be assured that could mutually recognise award holders from all countries.

Over the following years, regular assessments, investigations, and developments have both led to an evolution of the core standards, and also of the gradual unification of the approaches in each country. Peter certainly found the key to open the doors to all member institutes coming from different business cultures and professional backgrounds, affecting in this way the cross fertilisation between the ICMCI central team and all of the IMCs. The Certified Management Consultant was the first single worldwide qualification for any profession. It is now recognised directly by 50 countries and has holders based in many more. I believe this would not have happened without Peter’s participative, quiet yet authoritative approach, continuing as he did for many years to implement the practices necessary to achieve consistency worldwide. Our profession has much to thank Peter for.”