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NCRA announces new Executive Director, CEO

May 15, 2012

The Board of Directors of the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) announced today that it has appointed Jim Cudahy as its executive director and CEO, effective June 1.

"The Board of Directors is thrilled that Jim Cudahy has agreed to be our next executive director," said NCRA President R. Douglas Friend, RDR, CRR. "Having served as the chairman of the search committee that reviewed the credentials of nearly 100 association executives, it was clear both to the committee and to the Board that Jim’s passion, expertise, and dedication to the profession of stenographic court reporting made him the ideal candidate to fill the position."

Cudahy, 44, has served for the past two-and-a-half years as NCRA’s senior director of marketing and communications, a position from which he engineered several key initiatives, including a membership dialogue initiative known as "Writing Our Future," the development of a comprehensive marketing and communications plan for NCRA, and the introduction of a new enterprise website.

Cudahy has more than 20 years of experience in association management. This work includes nine years as vice president of marketing and communications at CFA Institute in Charlottesville, Va. where he led a sustained campaign to build wider recognition and appreciation of the Chartered Financial Analyst™ (CFA®) credential among investment professionals and the general public on a global basis. Cudahy likewise was credited for leading an effort to change the association’s name from "Association for Investment Management and Research" to "CFA Institute" in 2004 and subsequently launching a highly successful rebranding campaign.

It was as much the experience that Cudahy brought from his previous work as what he has accomplished at NCRA that made him the best choice, according to NCRA President-Elect Tami Smith, RPR, CPE, CSR. "From the outset, the search committee and the NCRA Board were looking for a fresh face, someone who would inject new life and new perspectives into the association as executive director," she said. "In Jim, we get the best of both worlds. He brings an entirely new perspective to us based on his extensive experience from outside of NCRA, but he likewise ascends to the position with first-hand familiarity of our members and knowledge of the opportunities and challenges that we face as a profession."

Cudahy indicated that his first order of business will be to engage directly with key stakeholder groups such as leaders of state court reporter associations, administrators of court reporting schools, and the representatives from the vendor community. "I need to extend my understanding of the issues that are directly affecting our profession," he said. "The best way to accomplish this is to sit down one-on-one with our members and others, look them in the eyes, and ask ‘What’s on your mind?’ It will be the answers to these questions that will help to inform the strategy we use in the months and years ahead to take stenographic court reporting, CART, and broadcast captioning to higher levels."