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This award is named after the inspirational Peter Heims, a past president of the association, who was noted for his straight talk and dedication to the association for well over half a century. The membership is invited to nominate suitable candidates who have maintained similar high standards within the association and the wider investigation ‘family’ over many years. This is a highly prestigious award, and it isn’t expected to be presented on a yearly basis.
Recipient of Award: Mark Peachman - F0723, Life Member and Past President, who was nominated by Eric Shelmerdine, Life Member & Past President. The nomination read as follows:
The nomination is summarised in the first person as follows:
I suppose in every walk of life we experience people who are “talkers” and those who are "doers.”
Anyone who has known Mark Peachman, in particular anyone who has been on any of the numerous ABI committees he has served on, will tell you that he definitely falls into the latter category.
Mark became a member of the ABI in April 1980 (so that’s 40 years continuous service to the association), and you could say the ABI is in blood, his father, Barrie Peachman, was President that same year.
I must admit I have lost track of the representative roles Mark has played in serving this association at the branch and national level.
The roles are summarised as follows:
Treasurer, Discipline Secretary, Membership Secretary, Branch Treasurer and Secretary and Trustee and Treasurer of the Association's Benevolent Fund. He has also been a GC member with responsibility for the following roles: Education and Training, Recruitment, to name but a few. These are roles which he served as the incumbent officer for many years, and Mark has basically spent the last 40 years working in one role or another on behalf of the ABI.
He even gets a mention in this year’s GC reports submitted by Jon Wood, who was last year’s Discipline Chairman. Jon commented as follows: Mark Peachman’s contributions in dealing with cases referred for consideration have been timely and relevant, with excellent attention to detail. This gives further insight on how Mark is perceived and respected by his peers.
Mark is also a Past President and served during the 1994/5 year.
As an example of his dedication during his tenure as president, the ABI had 5 very active regional branches situated around the country, including a Scottish Branch. I know Mark visited every single one of the branches at his own expense during his term.
He has always been an approachable person and willing to interact with the membership at all levels, listening to the various thoughts and opinions and maintaining a steady ship throughout.
I was the following President to Mark for the 1995/6 term which gave me a bird's-eye view of his insightful and professional attitude. I have nothing but respect for this man, who, throughout the years I have known him, has shown patience to those with opposing views, fairness when making decisions and above all, complete dedication to our association, which has always played such an important part in his life.
Still playing a representative role to this day I can think of no other person who fulfils the criteria to be worthy of this prestigious award.
Mark Peachman, Past President Dick Smith QPM & Chris Booth Past ChairmanThis award was bequeathed to the Association by Iris Heims in 2013, during the ABI's centenary, in honour of Peter Heims, who passed away the very night before the centenary. This award is highly prestigious and extremely difficult to achieve.
