CIB has appointed a number of Board members to the official role of Regional Director to lead our membership strategy and outreach to existing and potential new members around the world. Responsibilities are as follows:
- Middle East and North Africa (MENA): Taha Elhag
- Southern Africa: Theo Haupt, Kathy Michell
- Latin America: Eduardo Toledo Santos, Patricia Tzortzopoulos
- Northern Europe: Bart Ingelaere, Huub Keizers; Janne Tahtikunnas, Piia Sormunen (Finland)
- UK: Patricia Tzortzopoulos, Billy Hare
- Australasia: Ron Wakefield, Keith Hampson
- South East Asia: Hisham Elkadi
- North America: Georg Reichard
- China: Dongping Fang
- India: Anil Kashyap/Mark Hastak.
We would be delighted to receive expressions of interest or ideas from other CIB members in these regions or in areas not presently covered.
Current activity
Meanwhile here are some headlines from recent activities as reported to the Membership and Communications Committee at its meeting in March:
- Middle East and North Africa (MENA): Joint webinar planned in May with the Islamic Development Bank and FOCIC (Federation of Contractors from Islamic Countries) on “Advancing Innovation and Sustainability in the Construction Industry”, speakers include CIB Board member Taha Elhag and CIB chief executive Don Ward.
- Southern Africa: The annual ASCOSA (Association of Schools of Construction of Southern Africa) conference in July is led by Theo Haupt, the CIB chief executive will also attend and hold separate meetings with members in Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Pretoria.
- Northern Europe: Board members from Denmark, Netherlands and Belgium met in person with the CIB chief executive in January and discussed how to improve CIB’s profile in the region, ideas include engagement with leading industry bodies at a European Union level and global manufacturers, an online engagement event for members in the region, a strategy for collaboration with key third parties (eg UN, EU), and a proposal for a CIB Task Group to look at Vision and Futures.
- Finland: CIB chief executive to visit in April for meetings with local members.
- UK: CIB Working Commission W121 – Offsite Construction – launched its new research roadmap report at an in-person event in November which was attended by the CIB chief executive.
- Australasia: Keith Hampson has recruited the University of Melbourne and Torrens University into membership in the last three months, and a very positive call was held with BRANZ.
- South East Asia: Hisham Elkadi arranged a seminar with the British Council and Hanoi University of Mining and Geology in November to commemorate CIB’s 70th anniversary, this was attended by the CIB chief executive and CIB President Mark Hastak gave a keynote presentation.
- North America: The WBC2025 co-chairs Mark Hastak and Z Torbica aim to provide a platform for CIB to expand in north America through the success of the World Building Congress in May 2025.
- China: We are working with Dongping Fang of Tsinghua University to ensure that their hosting of the CIB Board meeting in June 2024 serves as a launchpad for membership outreach across China.
- India: The CIB President and chief executive visited a numbe rof institutions in 2023 and secured NICMAR as a new member and commitments from others which are still being followed up.
Next steps
Next steps planned by Regional Directors include a mix of membership calls, regional meetings or webinars for existing members, participation in third-party events, and student or ECR-centric events. As already stated, we would be delighted to receive expressions of interest or ideas from other CIB members in these regions or in areas not presently covered.
