ICM Prize winners - June 2006

Credit Management, Nov 2006

Our congratulations go to all our prize winners, and to everyone who succeeded in passing the June examinations. Our best wishes go to everyone starting their studies and taking examinations next year.

Coface UK Prize

Accounting

Melanie Blagg

Melanie studied journalism at the University of Sheffield in 1997. She then went on to work in the public sector for several years, including finance and management for children's services. She recently worked as a policy co-ordinator at the Government Office for the East Midlands and she currently works for Youth VOICE, a voluntary organisation for young people in Leicester. In 2006 she studied at Broxtowe College in Nottingham for the ICM Accountancy exam.

Credit Services Association (CSA) Prize

Credit Management Law

Moore Stephens Prize

Legal Proceedings & Insolvency

Sarah-Louise Aldridge

Sarah has appeared in these pages before. She works for the credit insurance arm of Smart & Cook Ltd (CIB). Her current role as an Account Executive involves looking after both existing clients and prospective clients. She studied for the ICM qualifications at Park Lane College in Leeds.

P&A Group Prize

Introductory Credit Management

Joint winner: Sumita Anand

Sumita has worked in recruitment and for energy businesses in India and the UK. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Foreign Trade and a Master's Degree in English. For her ICM examinations, she studied at Centrica's Leicester office, completing her given assignments very thoroughly.

Joint winner: Pauline Bruin

After 24 years at Barclaycard, Pauline moved to Barclaycard Business in 2004 to develop her career in credit management within commercial card issuing. Barclaycard Business recently ran an in house ICM course and all of Pauline's colleagues who went on to take the Introductory Credit Management examination succeeded in gaining the qualification.

Joint winner: Louise Morris

Louise has worked at Cleanaway Ltd for seven years. She began as a Customer Service Advisor for the regional office and soon progressed her career. Last year she became the Billing and Dispute Resolution Manager for the Major Accounts department. Her company took credit control 'in house' in October 2005, and since then has reduced its DSO from 91 days to 57. It was this additional responsibility that encouraged Louise to begin studying for her ICM qualifications at Salford University.

Experian Prize

Business Environment

Caroline Shand

Caroline found studying for the Business Environment examination the most difficult of all the modules and she was therefore extremely pleased to have won this award. Since her examinations in June she has relocated to London, and taken a new role at EDF Energy as an Operational Risk Analyst. Caroline hopes that the ICM Certificate, and this module in particular, will be very beneficial in her new position.

Equifax Europe Prize

Advanced Credit Management

Joint winner: Marcelline Warrington

Marcelline joined Bank of Valletta Ltd in Malta in 1980. Over the years she has worked in different roles and positions. Since 2002, she has been the manager responsible for setting up and managing the bank's Debt Collection Unit.

Last year she studied for, and obtained the Certificate in Credit Management through evening lectures organised by the Malta Association of Credit Management (MACM). The MACM is accredited by the ICM, and prepares students for its Certificate and Diploma qualifications.

Marcelline has also followed the first two subjects of the Diploma under the guidance of lecturers provided by MACM.

Joint winner: Karen Smith

Karen graduated in 1999 with a degree in finance and accountancy and joined Corus PIc, the steelmaker, spending five years building up to the role of managing the credit risk department while studying for her ICM Certificate.

In September 2005, Karen moved to SCH PIc to work in a newly created role of Credit Risk Analyst. She has been studying for her Diploma by unsupported home study.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Prize

Practical Credit Management Project

Joint winner: Emma Morton

Since joining npower Business five years ago, Emma has held a variety of roles including credit control, legal debt recovery and insolvency.

In her current role as credit risk manager, she is responsible for establishing and managing credit risk strategies and associated control structures for SME & I&C customers within the business division.

Emma has studied for her ICM qualifications by attending evening classes and through distance learning, all of which have been sponsored by npower.'

Joint winner: Marie Elfathi

Marie says that she has enjoyed a rather eclectic career path. Graduating from a hotel and catering school, and spending three years in that area, she was offered the chance to join the credit department of the Jury Inn hotel chain.

She moved on to work in the telecom industry as a credit controller, and this is where she started studying for her ICM qualifications from home, which she says has worked well.

Marie currently works in the futures and options credit department for Tradition (UK) Ltd. Her current work encompasses credit risk, an area that she particularly enjoys.