Press release n° 40 - 12 May 2003
IFAH* elects new President and outlines strategic objectives for 2003/4
Brussels 12 May 2003
At its 13th General Assembly, the International Federation for Animal Health (IFAH) has both announced its ongoing strategic objectives, and elected a new President to oversee their achievement.
Patrick James, President of Elanco Animal Health, succeeds Alan Reade, Executive Chairman of Merial Limited, to the IFAH Presidency. As President, James will continue to enhance and develop IFAH’s momentum, as it continues successfully to connect and represent the animal health industry over five continents.
As outgoing President, Reade not only reported on achievements and activities in the immediate past year, 2002, but outlined IFAH’s current and future strategies. He was delighted, he said, to report the considerable achievements of IFAH in its first year as an integrated federation, particularly noteworthy being the successful integration of one of the industry’s key regions – Europe – into the broader organisation. This led in January 2003 to the creation of IFAH-Europe as a distinct division within IFAH.
For 2003 Reade announced that the IFAH Board had identified three strategic priorities. They were he said, regulatory affairs, comprising the vital elements of harmonisation, antimicrobial availability, the precautionary principle and regulatory process efficiency; the food chain with emphasis on the need for communication and relationship building with key stakeholders; and image management based on the need for the industry to be understood and recognised for its contribution to society at large.
IFAH’s aim Reade emphasised was “to ensure that the animal health industry achieves the most appropriate platforms from which to articulate its position, and from which to develop its activities and expand understanding about its role.”
Taking up the mantle as IFAH’s newly elected President, James continued and expanded his predecessors’ theme. “ It is our intention,” he said “to work through IFAH to ensure that our industry’s position on a number of significant issues is fully appreciated and understood. We want to participate fully in debates which we may not start, but which profoundly affect us, and we want a wide variety of stakeholders, including the general public, to know the contribution we make on a daily basis to people’s lives.”
At the same time James announced the election of the other members of the IFAH Executive Committee: Friedrich Berschauer (Bayer), Pedro Lichtinger (Pfizer), Alan Reade (Merial), Ruurd Stolp (Intervet), and Eric Marée (Virbac) as Treasurer. All CEO’s of their companies and elected from the IFAH Board members, they will form IFAH’s Executive Committee and be responsible for supporting James achieve IFAH’s objectives.
“I am looking forward to working with my industry colleagues to ensure its effective international representation,” concluded James.
Ends
IFAH, the International Federation for Animal Health is a not for profit international organisation registered under Belgian law. For further information on IFAH, including a list of members, please visit www.ifahsec.org
For further press information please contact Jean-Louis Delforge, IFAH Executive Director
IFAH
Rue Defacqz, 1
B-1000 Brussels
Tel.: +32 (0)2 541 0111
Fax : +32 (0)2 541 0119
E-mail : ifah@ifahsec.org
* IFAH, the International Federation for Animal Health, is the federation representing manufacturers of veterinary medicines, vaccines and other animal health products in both developed and developing countries across five continents.
