Hello. Welcome to my little space on LinkedIn. My name is Lee, and I am the Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA), the professional body and Approved Regulator under the Legal Services Act (LSA) for UK patent attorneys. I stumbled into the world of association leadership in 1999, when I became the District Secretary (great title) of the Thames & Solent District of the Workers’ Educational Association. In 2004, I was instrumental in setting up the Institute for Learning, as a founder member and then Deputy (Acting) Chief Executive. I became the Chief Executive of CIPA in 2012 and have, in my opinion, the best gig in the association sector.When I joined CIPA, it was to lead it through a transformation brought about by the Legal Services Act, separating out its regulatory functions from its professional representative activities, as required by the Act. CIPA has been on a voyage of reinvention and discovery, and it has been my pleasure (challenge/ecstasy/frustration/education/time of my life) to lead it during this period.Together, we have achieved so much. We have transformed the governance of CIPA; shifted the emphasis away from regulation and towards representation; focussed on the needs of our members in their professional lives; reset our purpose as a professional body centred on the status, influence, learning and community of our members; placed our members at the centre of our strategic planning, policy making and decision taking; established CIPA as the critical friend of government; influenced the IP agenda in the UK and internationally; and successfully confronting a number of existential threats.I am a:• leader and follower;• passionate champion for the association sector;• leadership and governance geek;• advocate for influencing with integrity and credibility;• believer that people make associations, and associations make people;• thought leader;• decent public speaker;• pretty good event and conference host;• Memcom award-winning podcaster;• storyteller;• teacher;• coach;• mentor;• friend and ally;• reluctant and enthusiastic omnivert;• squash player;• angler;• sufferer of imposter syndrome.Oh, and:• pretty good at leading professional membership associations.