The new president of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) is making professional ethics one of the core themes of his year in office.

Above: Paul Nash

Paul Nash, a director of Turner & Townsend Project Management, has become the 113th CIOB president and one of the few to have worked in both the contracting and the consultancy side of the industry. He takes over from Chris Chivers.

In his inaugural address to colleagues, Mr Nash said he wanted to make ethics a central theme for the year ahead.

“We are all responsible for the reputation of this industry and for the wellbeing of the people who work within it. No matter what country we work in.” he said.

“Ethics defines what it means to be a professional. Behaving ethically entails tough decisions. And we have a responsibility to help our members make those right decisions.”

Over the next 12 months the CIOB is set to release a simplified code of conduct to describe what should be expected of a CIOB member.  New learning modules on ethics and governance will be developed by the CIOB Academy.

Between 2004 and 2012 Paul Nash was a director of Sweett, which was fined £1.4m earlier this year for bribery offences.