Numerous practitioners have expressed the desire to see a more global and influential body aiming to advance the understanding and recognition of Key Account Management (KAM). To meet this need, a group of leading academics and practitioners have set up the Association for Key Account Management (AKAM), initially sponsored by KEDGE Business School in Bordeaux, France, and now by Technological University Dublin, Ireland. AKAM aims to promote KAM through: •communicating with business, academia and the wider world to gain proper understanding and recognition of KAM •professionalising key account managers’ skills through defining required competencies; a development curriculum; and certifying development programmes leading to a widely recognised formal qualification in KAM •sponsoring research into under-explored aspects of KAM, and linking practitioners and academics to the benefit of both •facilitating the sharing of KAM knowledge and the latest research, learning, practices and variations from around the world. AKAM objectives: •foster professionalism in key account management (KAM) •establish and certify educational and developmental standards in KAM •develop standards in professional qualifications for practitioners at Diploma and Advanced Diploma level •raise standards of performance and behaviour in the KAM profession •stimulate the development of new knowledge and insights in the field through the sponsorship of research •carry on any activity, commercial or philanthropic that will further the interests of those involved in KAM (eg annual conferences, workshops, accreditation, sponsorship, collaboration).