2025 - November and December - page 20
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| Issue number | 404 |
|---|---|
| ISSN | 2632-7171 |
| Publication date | 1st November 2025 |
| Transcription |
magazine Feature ARA Conference, Bristol – 27th August 2025 Interview with Anne Cornish (CEO, RIMPA Global) and Michael Haley (ARMA International) On the Tuesday prior to the start of the ARA Conference 2025, the Global Information Consortium met at the conference hotel (and online). Deborah Mason, Head of Communications for ARA, interviewed two of the key people involved in setting up the consortium: Anne Cornish from RIMPA Global and Michael Haley from ARMA International. RA has partnered with RIMPA Global and ARMA International to offer reciprocal membership benefits across the three organisations and to collaborate on the Global Information Consortium (GIC), a network uniting records and information management professionals worldwide. About Anne and Michael Anne Cornish, CEO of RIMPA Global, transitioned from records manager to consultancy before taking the helm at RIMPA Global. Starting as a filing clerk for her local council in Australia, she found herself dealing with records at an early age and even as a teenager her passion for the profession showed through: “I think I was 17 or 18 and trying to change the voting rights of RIMPA for some reason. Although now I'm involved at this level, I know I shouldn't have, but I tried!”. When she took on the role of RIMPA Global CEO she sold her consulting business to avoid conflicts of interest and now leads RIMPA, with a strong belief in the value of records: “Nobody in an organisation can do their job without records. We manage the organisation’s most expensive asset: information.” Michael Haley is a principal consultant at Cohasset Associates and has served two terms as ARMA International’s treasurer and three years as president. He had not planned on a records management career but whilst working in insurance he was tasked with solving a records crisis. He recalls telling his boss, “I don't know anything about records,” to which she replied, “I didn't 20 ask you what you knew. I just said, you have to fix this.” He turned to ARMA for guidance and that became the starting point for a long involvement in the organisation. Both Anne and Michael note that many records management professionals enter the field by indirect routes and then find purpose and professional training through associations like RIMPA, ARMA and ARA. Their collaboration led to the formation of the GIC, initially between the US and Australia, and now expanding globally. Advocating for Professionalism Anne highlights a persistent challenge: “It’s about escalating the importance of the value of information management at the employer or management level.” She warns against the assumption that anyone can manage records just because systems are digital. In Australia, she’s seen records devolved to IT departments, only to be brought back under professional management later. Michael agrees: “Awareness that records management is a profession unto itself is vital. IT, privacy and security teams all rely on proper records management.” He sees promise in new data protection laws that require deletion, not just retention, which forces organisations to adopt retention schedules. Private sector attitudes are shifting. Anne points to cyberattacks on companies like Medibank and Optus: “They kept records too long, got hacked, and now personal information is on the dark web.” These |