William Spiteri Bailey elected as President of the Malta Institute of Accountants

William Spiteri Bailey, a partner at RSM Malta, a member of IRGlobal,  has been elected president of the Malta Institute of Accountants (MIA) following the institute’s annual general meeting held on  Thursday 13th of July 2017. 

Mr Spiteri Bailey replaces Franco Azzopardi, who served his two-year term as the Institute’s president between July 2015 and 2017.

Thanking Mr Azzopardi for his hard work, Mr Spiteri Bailey said his objectives for this two year term include that of bringing the Institute closer to its Members and increasing the involvement of the ever growing number of younger members in existing and newly set sub-committees. The latter will serve the twofold objective of having committees made up of young accountants for young accountants and to subsequently obtain the right skills and competencies to become future Council members.

He also intends to ensure continued involvement of the retiring generation of members in the Institute. Mr. Spiteri Bailey said that he will be working hard to meet with and understand the needs of the different sectors of Accountants within the Institute and assist the Members in understanding and embracing the new Digital Era.”

He continued by outlining his intentions of exploring the possibility of rebranding the Institute’s name and terminology, and changing the term ‘Accountant’ to ‘Professional Accountant’. Mr. Spiteri Bailey closed off by stating that he will work closer with other professional accounting bodies, such as Accountancy Europe and IFAC (International Federation of Accountants) for the benefits of Members of our Institute.

The annual general meeting also elected a new council for the Institute, namely Franco Azzopardi, Etienne Borg Cardona, Simon Flynn, Maria Micallef, Noel Mizzi, William Spiteri Bailey and Franz Wirth who will serve for a two-year term from 2017 to 2019.

These joined the other seven council members elected at the 2016 AGM: Fabio Axisa, Christopher Balzan, David Delicata, Jonathan Dingli, Anthony Doublet, Ivan Grixti and Stephen Paris. 

At the first meeting of the new council apart from William Spiteri Bailey being elected president; Fabio Axisa was elected vice-president; David Delicata, secretary; and Noel Mizzi, treasurer.