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After a two year presidency that member associations consider very successful, how does the outgoing president assess his time in charge of FIDIC?
“When you step into a position you want to leave it at least no worse than when you stepped in. Hopefully you leave it improved. I always maintain the objective to take the organisation up a notch in its activities. And I’m pleased to say that in many ways that seems to have happened.
“FIDIC is in a strong position thanks to its financial stability and it has continued to expand activities that generate revenue along with those that support member associations. We have also been able to keep the subscription rate at the same level for seven years, which is very pleasing.
“But the big issue that was looming two years ago was the relationship between FIDIC and EFCA. That relationship had created some unease among some European associations and they were not sure if they would have to choose between FIDIC and EFCA, or whether they could remain in both long term.
“I’m pleased to say this has been successfully defused in my second year in office. We reached some agreement with EFCA as to how we could co-ordinate activities and not duplicate each others’ work and EFCA is now co-branded with FIDIC. It was very important to me that we should not have two competing organisations operating in Europe as that would be a weaker position for the industry. But if things had gone wrong over the last two years, we could have ended up with EFCA running independently while FIDIC had to create a FIDIC Europe.
“I’m also pleased we have seen rising prominence of the importance of young professionals in FIDIC each year. More and more young engineers are getting involved in our training programmes and attending our conference each year. That is something FIDIC should be very proud of.”
Gregs Thomopulos served two years of presidency as the world struggled to recover from the credit crunch. How was this reflected at FIDIC?
“In Europe and North America it has been quite difficult for member firms. That in turn has been quite a challenge for the national associations that represent them. On the other hand, we have places like China, India, Australia and New Zealand that have not been so badly affected by the world wide situation. At the same time South Africa has not been impacted so heavily, though Africa has been. So it varies geographically.”
While the economy is a focus, Mr Thomopulos is clear that sustainability remains a core FIDIC concern.
“Unfortunately too many countries have their own approach to sustainability. They have different rating systems and what we lack is a universal international standard. This is something FIDIC will seek to address in future.
“We have to hope we can avoid having divergent rating systems for every country.”
And does the outgoing president have any advice for his successor?
“As I said in my closing remarks to the general assembly, I am very pleased to be handing over to someone for whom I have a great deal of respect. I know Geoff is very competent and will take FIDIC up another notch. We also elected his eventual successor Pablo Bueno as vice president.
“I think we can rest assured that we have two future leaders who will manage and lead FIDIC in a very effective manner. So I don’t have any specific advice to offer Geoff. He has a great deal of experience internationally and executive experience with Scott Wilson. So I’m sure he doesn’t need any advice from me and will tackle all issues very well as they come up.”
So what does a FIDIC president do when he steps down?
“As CEO of Stanley Consultants I can probably spend more time focused on my company. There is a lot to be done both worldwide and in the USA, and where I’m asked to head initiatives and committees to support the industry and the community I will continue to do that. So I’ll be quite busy.”
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