Outgoing president Anders Nilsson recognised for significant progress against ambitious corporate objectives
Gyorgy Kovacs will be inaugurated as FESPA President at FESPA 2010, with an official ceremony at the Gala Dinner on Friday 25 June at Munich’s Nockherberg. Gyorgy takes over from outgoing President Anders Nilsson, who has held the position since FESPA 2007 in Berlin.
During his three-year tenure, Anders Nilsson has worked with the FESPA executive team to meet an ambitious set of strategic objectives. Since 2007, the FESPA Digital event concept has gone from strength to strength, with events in Geneva (2008), Amsterdam (2009) and India (2009) attracting significant new visitor audiences. In the Americas, FESPA acquired the established imageWORLD event, rebranding the show as FESPA Mexico which is now in its third successful year. FESPA has also embarked on an active event programme in Asia Pacific, launched a Digital Textile conference to address this rapid growth market, and staged a series of leadership events and Summits in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
The success of these events has enabled FESPA to maintain an active reinvestment programme, ploughing more than Euros 1.5 million of surplus revenues into educational and best-practice initiatives to directly benefit members of the global FESPA community.
FESPA CEO Nigel Steffens comments: “We’re grateful to Anders for the energy and enthusiasm he has brought to the Presidency during this challenging and exciting period for the FESPA community. In the last three years our industry has been substantially reshaped by rapid technological revolution and market consolidation, culminating in a deep global recession.
“Against this backdrop, Anders has worked with the FESPA board and executive team to drive a series of extremely successful global events in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. The FESPA brand is now globally recognised and FESPA events are considered a benchmark for quality in our industry. We have set a clear path to be the leading global connected community for wide format imaging professionals, uniting printers and suppliers on every continent.”
During Gyorgy’s Presidency, FESPA will host FESPA Digital events in Hamburg, Germany (2011) and Barcelona, Spain (2012), and take its flagship event to London, UK, in 2013. Singapore will be the host country for FESPA Asia 2011, and the first FESPA Americas show will take place in Florida, USA, in the same year, reinforcing FESPA’s presence in the Americas.
Gyorgy Kovacs states: “I look forward to building on the work done by Anders and the team since 2007. I’m immensely proud of our achievements, and passionate about the benefits that print service providers can access through FESPA. The growth opportunities for our members have never been more exciting, and FESPA is committed to helping printers meet and profit from the changing demands of brand owners and print buyers. I’m thrilled to be given this chance to steer us through the next stage of FESPA’s development.”
