A message from FICPI President, Roberto Pistolesi
Dear FICPI members
At the Executive Committee meeting on Monday 26th September 2022, EXCO delegates voted on election of the new Bureau, as per the FICPI statutes. The Executive Committee (EXCO) is FICPI’s governing body which consists of delegates from each of FICPI’s member National Associations and Sections.
The Bureau is elected every three years by the EXCO and assumes the duties and responsibilities of the day-to-day management of FICPI, all are FICPI members and all the positions are honorary. The previous term was extended by one year due to the exceptional challenges posed by Covid, so ran from 2018-2022.
I am pleased to inform you that the EXCO members voted in the new Bureau for the 2022-2025 term as:
- President – Roberto Pistolesi (IT)
- Vice President – Michael Caine (AU)
- Secretary General – Elia Sugrãnes (ES)
- Treasurer General – Uwe Borchert (DE)
- Deputy Secretary General – Sharon Crane (US)
- Deputy Secretary General – Swarup Kumar (IN)
I would like to thank Julian Crump, former President for his leadership, and the other former Bureau members for all their hard work during an extremely challenging term due to the Covid pandemic.
Their diligence, together with the work of FICPI members across Commissions, groups and working parties, ensured that FICPI innovated in order to provide new services to members during this difficult time, in particular through the online open Fora, webinars, new website, video series, and increased newsletters, articles, blogs and LinkedIn activity.
Our longstanding Treasurer General, Marc Chauchard, retired from his post on Monday after 16 years in post and we would like to offer him a great deal of thanks for his rigour and excellent services to FICPI over the years.
We would also like to give special thanks and offer our appreciation to two Bureau members who have stepped down at the end of their 2022 term: Ivan Ahlert, previously Vice President of FICPI, and Jürgen Schmidtchen, previously Deputy Secretary General.
At the EXCO we also announced the election of new Presidents of our Commissions for the terms 2022-2025:
- CET (Study & Work) – Robert Watson (UK)
- Admissions – Francesco Paolo Vatti (IT)
- EUCOF – Daniel Alge (Austria)
- Deontology – Doug Deeth (CA), plus Vice President Yoshikazu Tani (JP)
- FAB (Finance Advisory Board) – Philip Mendes da Costa (CA)
- Communications – Julian Crump (UK)
- Statutes – Jürgen Schmidtchen (DE)
- TEC (Training & Education) – Eric Le Forestier (FR)
- PMC (Practice Management) – Anne Lévy (FR)
- Membership – Paula Sailas (FI)
Many of you will know our longstanding webmaster and administrator, Rebecca Sandland, and she continues her excellent work for us as we go forwards, supported by our new administrative secretary, Jade Swain-Veneziale.
Get involved
We look forward to a new term where we can continue to take further steps towards supporting National Groups and Sections through measures such as the roll-out of the National Websites and by contributing FICPI Officers to speak at National events; and to supporting our membership and creating opportunities to make connections, share insights and grow knowledge through events such as the 2023 Open Forum in London; our new webinar series; and meetings with IP Offices.
If you have an interest in any Commission areas, we urge you to contact the Presidents of those Commissions, to find out you can get involved.
There are also opportunities to get involved through the seven individual CET groups and in other areas of FICPI work such as the webinar committee; the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility committee; or by contributing articles and blogs to share your knowledge and views with other members.
The possibilities and opportunities to connect, share and grow with FICPI expand as your input into FICPI’s work, meetings, and communications expands.
I look forward to working with you and thank you for your contributions to our global community of independent IP attorneys.