At the recent General Assembly held in Athens, Greece, Philippe Fournier, of MCI, was unanimously elected as IAPCO’s President. Philippe took over the office immediately and was delighted to receive the vote of confidence.  “It is a tremendous honour to become president of our prestigious institution and to serve our profession. I would like to thank all of you for your confidence and count on you and the new council members to continue improving the professionalism of our industry. In these challenging times where the meetings sector requires the attention of all stakeholders, IAPCO has an important role to play as a Quality driven association. With the implementation of our Quality programme, we can now go a step further and continue with education, commitment to produce events and meetings that are environmentally and socially responsible, branding and other involvement for the development of our members. My goal, says Philippe, is to prepare the members to be ready and get adapted to the changes. Let’s lead to change by leading the trend!” he said.

Patrizia Semprebene Buongiorno steps down as President to take up the post of Chairman of the Committee of Ethics, yet a further endorsement of IAPCO’s Quality Programme.

Philippe is a member of the management board of MCI and created the Paris office in 2003. He is Managing Director for MCI in France and manages now a growing company with 5 offices in Paris, Lyon, Montpellier, French Riviera and Marseilles and with 85 staff. Philippe has been in the industry for almost 25 years providing full concept event, congress and exhibition management, marketing and communication services to worldwide based scientific societies, associations, corporations and federations.