Happy New Year from the New Executive Committee @ BIIA

Dear Colleague,

On behalf of BIIA I would like to wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

As we start the new year BIIA has made some exciting changes to the Executive Committee team that manages the Association designed to significantly enhance the support we provide to our current members and those that will hopefully join us in 2023.

I am delighted to announce that at the beginning of this month, Ingrid Riehl joined the Executive Committee as Head of Membership Services. This role has been created to provide a dedicated point of contact for members and to support a more proactive engagement with our membership.

Ingrid has substantial experience of the industries that BIIA support working at a senior level within a number of the main organisations and I believe she will be a significant addition to the team. Ingrid will also be a member of the Board of BIIA. In her new role, Ingrid will be responsible for membership relations and the services we offer to members. Ingrid can be contacted at: riehli@biia.com .

As part of the changes we have also created the role of Head of Information Resources within the Executive Committee. This role will allow even further work on research on industry developments and insights that we provide to our members as well as allowing the association to explore new industry sectors relevant to members.

I am pleased to announce that Joachim Bartels, co-founder of BIIA and leader of the association for the last 17 years has ag reed to perform this role. As many of your will know Joachim has single handedly created one of the largest reference sites for our industry with the BIIA website now containing over 14.000 documents. In his new role Joachim will be looking to dedicate more time to further enhance this treasure trove of insights. Joachim will continue to remain part of the Board of Directors and can be contacted as usual at: bartelsjc@biia.com .

With Joachim’s change of role I have assumed the role of Managing Director/General Manager for the Association with the objective of leading BIIA in the next stages of its development over the coming years. I am extremely excited about this new role and the opportunity to further develop, with the support of the other members of the Executive Committee team and the Board of Directors, the services we provide to our members.

I know from working alongside Joachim for the last 8 years in the role of Deputy Managing Director how much effort he has put into making BIIA one of the leading Associations for our industry. It will be a significant challenge to match his level of commitment and effort but I stand ready to do so.

I am pleased to confirm that Peter Sheerin, will continue to be part of the Executive Committee as Regulatory Advisor and Regional Membership Liaison, continuing the great work he does in supporting members in the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Peter can be contacted at sheerinp@biia.com .

In what will be a busy and challenging year for our industry with the global slowdown, continued digitalisation of business and geopolitical tensions, the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee are confident that the changes we have put in place will help provide the support that members will be looking for from our Association.

I and the other members of the Executive Committee look forward to helping enhance the growth of our current and future members in the coming year through an even more dynamic, more knowledgeable and more proactive Association.