The Association of Consulting Architects (ACA) has appointed Angelina Pillai as the organisation’s first CEO.

“The new role of CEO will help ensure the ACA provides a coordinated, coherent national outlook, while drawing on the diverse yet complementary strengths offered by the ACA branches,” says ACA national president John Held.

Pillai has spent the past 20 years in leadership roles across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, in Australia and internationally. Most notable are her roles with three membership associations over 13 years, from procurement and supply chain to human resources and general medical practice. Her responsibilities included significant involvement in membership strategy, engagement and growth; education and training; strategic partnerships and business development.

Pillai says tahat she is particularly interested in the impact that digitisation makes in membership associations and leveraging data to better understand the segments of professional markets, and customising relevant product offerings for those market segments to create value for members.

Regarding the future of the ACA, Pillai says that “Competition is rife in keeping membership associations thriving and agile in this world of disruption. Disintermediation is a reality to be reckoned with, so membership associations need to be vigilant about listening to and supporting their members through robust content, standards of practice and the point of reference for their members… Otherwise, someone else will.”