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Today the FIATA General Meeting delegates elected the new Presidency and the new Extended Board of FIATA in Singapore
Today the FIATA General Meeting delegates elected the new Presidency and the new Extended Board of FIATA in Singapore.
The General Meeting ran like clockwork and, after resolving the regular tasks pertaining to finance and membership matters, it quickly reached its apex when the casting of the ballots took place, thus showing both delegates and the numerous observers the true expression and power of the democratic and ecumenical nature of FIATA. The World Congress theme, “Springboard to Asia, Connecting the World” echoed in the results that the zealous Secretariat staff disclosed to the President. These catapulted Asia to hold four of the seven Presidency positions.
The newly elected President is Francesco Parisi, who is Italian and is the contemporary descendant of the historical freight forwarding family, whose entrepreneurial origin dates as far back as 1807 in Trieste, then main port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Mr Parisi succeeds the Singaporean Stanley Lim, who will now serve as Immediate Past President. His predecessor Jean-Claude Delen, Belgium, is the new Treasurer and Heiner Rogge, Germany, remains firmly in the position of Secretary General. The Presidency is however completed by three distinguished practitioners from Asia, Mr Babar Badat from Pakistan, Mr Suwit Ratanachinda from Thailand, both renewing their positions asSenior Vice Presidents, and by Mr Huxiang Zhao from China, who enriches the Presidency with a professional curriculum that is second to none and has been elected as Senior Vice President for the first time. The Presidency election proved to be the true springboard to Asia for FIATA in this Congress.
Now the second part of the prophetical congress theme will have to come true and fulfil the expectations of this new prominent Asian role. Old and new senior vice-presidents will have to establish the connection amongst the other various regions and theirs, in order to effectively connect Asia with their European counterparts who remain in the Presidency and the rest of the world, who is waiting on the doorstep.
The General Meeting delegates also elected the following Vice-Presidents: Krishnan Chelliah, MY; Turgut Erkeskin, TR; Paul Golland, AU; Robert Kutin, GH; Ivan Liptuga, UA; Steve Parker, GB; David Phillips, AE; Jens Roemer, BE; Antonella Straulino, IT; Keshav Tanna, IN; Peter Yang, TW; Sergey Zhelannov, RU. Together with the Chairpersons of the Institutes, the Advisory Bodies and the FIATA Regional Bodies, these distinguished individuals compose the Extended Board of FIATA, whose geographic diversity speaks for itself in terms of the representation of FIATA worldwide, which in 2013 comprises 164 countries or territories. The only newcomer in the group of Board members with a portfolio is Mr Robert Keen of Great Britain, who takes the helm of the Multimodal Transport Institute, where he succeeds Mr Chris Gillespie of Canada.
When making comments on the concluded World Congress in Singapore the President of FIATA, Mr Francesco Parisi, said that he “found delegates were going home with a wealth of information that he for one had treasured indeed”, thus remarking the daring approach that this FIATA Congress had embraced in selecting and developing an array of policy items from very original perspectives and by inviting a number of impressive speakers. President Parisi had words of praise for the “Young Logistics Professional initiative that was facilitated and developed by the local organisers [Singapore Logistics Association] in conjunction with FIATA, right before the opening of the Congress; this managed to attract in excess of 400 young practitioners and students who are looking at logistics as their career of choice.” An alert and experienced practitioner, Mr Parisi will no doubt use his biennial term of office to bring to fruition the initiatives that have been daringly initiated by his predecessor. “I am very pleased to initiate my term of office under the best auspices” said Mr Parisi, “when you start your career in freight forwarding, becoming the President of FIATA is a dream, so far away in space and time as it might look unrealistic. Today I have my dream come true: I hope I shall be able to represent FIATA at the level it deserves, by bringing its full potential to fruition.”
“At the General Meeting we took all our decision with singular unity of intentions; eventually there was almost no discussion, not because we did not have questions, but because the preparation was so accurate that almost all questions had already been answered, even though some of these were not simple or even comfortable. I must thank the outgoing Presidency for the accurate work that has been done; I rely on the remarkable experience of my new presidential team to achieve the full accomplishment of our statutory duties.”
The Presidency of FIATA and the Member of the Extended Board are now on their way home, literally to the four corners of the earth. They all have a message to share, which unifies and brings them together, the name, the logo and the reputation of FIATA.
Note for the editors
FIATA, the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA), was established in Vienna in 1926, and is the largest Non-Governmental Organization in the field of International Transport and logistics. Its membership includes National Freight Forwarders Associations, operating in over 109 countries, representing over 45,000 local logistics companies, employing in excess of 10 million persons, as well as individual members domiciled in over 164 countries in 2013.
Source: FIATA
