The world of professional archaeology was in shock on Thursday [13 February 2025] following the sudden announcement that Nathan Baker, the Chief Executive of the discipline’s professional body, the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, was stepping down, apparently with immediate effect, having only been in the post for some eight months. Now, in a revelation which is bound to provoke serious questions for CIfA’s Board, thePipeLine can reveal that Mr Baker was still appearing at events in his previous role as CEO of the Institute of Occupational Medicine [IOM] months after he was announced as having joined CIfA. Indeed, as of today [14 February 2024] Mr Baker still appears on the IOM website as the CEO of the workplace health research charity.
The bombshell news that the Head of the principle professional body representing the UK archaeologists was standing down after just eight months came in an email to members issued on 23 February [2024].
A statement was also placed on the news bar of the CIfA website.
The statement, issued in the name of the highly respected honorary chair of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, Pen Foreman, stated starkly,
“Nathan Baker has stepped down from his role as Chief Executive Officer of CIfA.”
The statement continued paying tribute to Mr Baker’s work with the organisation reminding members that,
“During his tenure the Institute has expanded its focus from regulation to include more actively and positively supporting the membership. As a result, CIfA is well placed to become the ‘professional home’ of archaeologists, offering whole-life learning, advocacy and confidence-building services.”
The statement went on to try to reassure members the organisation was in good hands with CIfA Director of Membership Alex Llewellyn and Kate Geary the organisation’s Director of Learning and Skills, taking on the roles of acting co CEO’s.
The statement was also repeated on the British Archaeological Jobs Resource FaceBook page, apparently at the request of CIfA. Popular known as BAJR, the influential group includes many CIfA members among its large user base.
It was BAJR members who began to ask questions about the fast moving events, principally why the man, who had been greeted with high hopes as a new broom from outside the archaeological industry less than a year before, was now gone with no reason given for his sudden departure.
This prompted Pen Foreman to post an update for BAJR members.
“Out of respect for his very private nature, I agreed not to state a reason in this statement.” they said “However I can confirm that is is not related to the Institute itself. I hope that is reassuring – and we are relishing taking forward his excellent work and plans.”
Readers commenting on the update appear to have taken the statement as meaning there was some kind of personal issue in play requiring sensitivity and privacy.
However, the situation is complicated by information which was discovered during the preparation of our coverage of the departure of Mr Baker.
Checking on the website of his, apparently previous, employer, the Institute for Occupational Medicine, thePipeLine discovered that Mr Baker was still listed as the charity’s CEO. Not only that. Although it is almost a year since Mr Baker was supposed to have been recruited by CIfA, there appeared to be no record of grateful thanks to Mr Baker from his former employer where he had been in post since March 2021. Neither did there appear to be a job advertisement or recruitment process, let alone an announcement of a new CEO for the busy charity.
Then on checking the Institute for Occupational Medicine’s Linked In account thePipeLine discovered the online flyer for the “Anticipate London” event at the held at the Excel centre in Dockland between 2 and 4 December 2024.
At 11.10 on December 4 one of the two keynote speakers at the session titled “Workforce Wellness: smart investments for the future” was Nathan Baker, billed as “CEO, IOM”.
The publicity photograph used for the flyer appears to be a cropped version of a photograph of Mr Baker appearing also on both the IOM website and used by the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists on FaceBook.
In other words, Mr Baker was still appearing as the CEO of the Institute for Occupational Medicine at a high profile industry event almost six months after he was supposed to have joined the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists.
This situation begs a lot of questions, none of which can be answered without further clarifications, particularly from the Board of CIfA, but what can be said is that for whatever reason it has come about, the sudden departure of Nathan Baker from CIfA could not have come at a worse time for the archaeological profession.
Along with the long term issues of poor pay and conditions, and uncertain career paths, all of which Mr Baker had undertaken to begin to address, the sector operates against a background of uncertainty about the future of archaeology in the planning system, which funds most archaeological jobs in the UK and the increasingly dire prospects for the Humanities, including archaeology, in Britain’s cash strapped Universities.
In all this, while there is no suggestion of anything illegal having happened, the key question is what did the CIfA Board know and when and were CIfA’s members kept out of the information loop?
There may be a simple explanation, but there are bound to be more calls for greater transparency on the part of the management of CIfA.
As part of this members might also want to know, if Mr Baker was working under some other arrangement than as the full time CEO, how was he paid and how much? The post was advertised at £80-£100k per year.
A Facebook post on the CIfA page dated 18 September 2024 and seen by thePipeLine, told members that Mr Baker had spent his first three months in post among other things, talking to members and stake holders with a view to developing a three year plan which would put members at the heart of CIfA’s future.
Responding to the post some comments were highly critical, to the extent one asked if an e-mail to members was even written by Mr Baker. It was claimed to be the first communication to members from the new CEO and came three months after he was supposed to have taken up his post.
While page moderators attempted to reassure the participants all was well, another post criticised CIfA for what was then perceived as another avoidable communications failure of the kind members had become used to. Was it, members asked, so difficult to arrange for Mr Baker to introduce himself to CIfA’s members when he took up the post and not three months later?
However, in what may now be seen as the canary in the CIfA coalmine on 24 January this year [2025] a post on the same thread in the name of Edward Kopczyk suggested CEO Baker,
“Might be busy with the institute of occupational medicine”.
The Chartered Institute for Archaeologists and the Institute for Occupational Medicine have been approached for comment.
If you have information about this story, or anything else in the world of archaeology and heritage you think archaeologists and the public should know about, contact thePipeLine in confidence at Proton Mail <PipeLineNews@protonmail.com>
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Featured Image: thePipeLine via the Institute of Occupational Medicine.
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