New Members of WAITRO Executive Board Elected
Members of the Executive Board of WAITRO are elected during the 26th General Assembly in Cape Town, South Africa
Last 16th of November, the 26th WAITRO General Assembly was held in Cape Town, South Africa, as part of the biennial WAITRO Summit, which took place on 14th and 15th of November 2022.
Representatives from full member organizations in good standing meet every two years to discuss the future of the association and work together on new forms of collaboration to create lasting bonds between members and partners.
This year’s agenda included, among other topics, the presentation of the Executive Board and the Secretariat Report, and Elections for the WAITRO Executive Board 2023-2024.
Opening and Presentation of the Executive Board and the Secretariat Report
The 26th WAITRO General Assembly was opened by the President of WAITRO HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan, followed by a welcoming speech by the Representative in Cameroon & Central Africa at UNIDO, Raymond Tavares.
Also in the first part of the assembly, the Report of the Executive Board and the Secretariat for 2021-2022 was presented. The report included updates regarding WAITRO Membership, Capacity Development Program, WAITRO Innovation Award, Benchmarking Project, SAIRA, WAITRO Work Program 2023-2024, among other topics.
The WAITRO Executive Board Elections
Elections for the WAITRO Executive Board 2023-2024 took place in the second part of the General Assembly. A total of 51 delegates (38 in person and 13 online) voted among the 13 candidates for the eight open positions.
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The counting of votes (in person and online) was carried out during the general assembly, and the results of the elections were known still during the session. The members of the WAITRO Executive Board 2023-2024 are as follows:
President
Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal, President of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBITAK)
First Vice President
Hans-Erich Schulz, CEO at Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI)
Second Vice President
Dirk Saseta Krieg, Director General, Area of Promotion & Management at LEITAT
Regional Representative for Sub-Saharan Africa
Prof. Paul Pinnock Bosu, Director General at CSIR Ghana
Regional Representative for Asia and The Pacific
Theresia Ningsi Astuti, Coordinator of Research and Innovation Infrastructure Partnership Development at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN)
Regional Representative for Europe
David Tveit, EVP, Energy and Climate Division at Danish Technological Institute (DTI)
Regional Representative for Latin America and The Caribbean
Prof. Dr. Eng. Jefferson de Oliveira Gomes, Director of Technology and Innovation – National Department at SENAI
Regional Representative for Middle East and North Africa
Abeer Arafat, Senior Assistant to the President for Science Technology & Innovation Liaison at Royal Scientific Society (RSS)
WAITRO congratulates all elected members, as well as thanks all other candidates, namely: Taha Mattar (TIMS), candidate for President; Panagiotis Karniouras (FORTH) and Robson M Mafoti (SIRDC), candidates for 1st Vice President; Abubakar Shehu Kollere (RMRDC), candidate for Regional Representative – Sub-Saharan Africa; and Emad Ewais (CMRDI), candidate for Regional Representative – Middle East and North Africa.
The First Honorary Member of WAITRO
WAITRO’s first Honorary Membership Certificate was proudly awarded to Moses Mengu, Senior Project Leader at Danish Technological Institute (DTI), in recognition of his more than 45 years of service to WAITRO.
Here we take license to share the words of the current 2nd Vice President of WAITRO, David Tveit, which so well describe this honor:
“It’s really well deserved that Moses has become an honorary member. He has put in a lot of dedicated effort over many years to ensure that WAITRO’s partnerships are translated into concrete projects that have a real effect on important societal challenges. Moses continues to play a very active role in promoting research and innovation projects worldwide in collaboration with WAITRO members.” – David Tveit, EVP, Energy and Climate Division, DTI
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