The board of the building society IMB showed its faith in a strong internal candidate when it announced yesterday that the chief executive of the past eight years Wayne Morris would be replaced by the current deputy CEO and chief financial officer Robert Ryan.Morris's contract was due to expire on December 31 and the board felt it was time for change. Morris celebrated 30 years with IMB only last week.IMB chairman Russell Fredericks said the mutual was working to a well-established succession plan. "We spoke to Wayne six months ago. We told him it was time for renewal in the organisation."Ryan, who has been at IMB for eight years, assumed CEO responsibilities yesterday. Morris will leave on October 31 after completing a handover.Fredericks said the decision was not motivated by any performance issues. In June IMB failed in a bid to change a contentious article in its constitution that was proving a hindrance to mergers with other mutuals."It was a mild frustration that we could not get the support we needed to change the constitution but the decision in relation to Wayne was made months before."We have had very good performance over the past eight years."IMB reported a $20 million operating profit for the year to June, up 13.5 per cent on the previous year, but suffered a 15 per cent drop in loan approvals.