Introducing:
EHEDG Operations Director Adwy van den Berg Since the early 1990’s, Adwy van den Berg has been active as a marketing and sales professional in business and product development, and is used to working in an international environment. After having lived abroad, he and his family returned to The Netherlands, from where Adwy worked as the Client Services Director of the International Student Identity Card (ISIC) for 5 years before he became the first EHEDG Operations Director in the history of the European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group. Adwy took on his new assignment by first setting up the new EHEDG Headquarters in Naarden (The Netherlands). This office takes over all tasks of the EHEDG Secretariat in Frankfurt (Germany) by the start of 2021. Adwy has a lot on his plate and started with seemingly impossible tasks, like replacing the irreplaceable Susanne Flenner and her team members, and ensuring a smooth transition of all the operational processes from Frankfurt to Naarden. The entire European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group wishes you lots of success in your new role. Now here are our questions: Has working for ISIC helped you to be ready for your tasks here at EHEDG? Adwy van den Berg: “Yes. ISIC is in many ways comparable to EHEDG. It’s also a layered organization, a foundation with a societal purpose, run by many professional volunteers who love their business, and who work under a board of other highly committed volunteers. There are plenty of differences as well of course, and that’s why I first started gathering information to develop a good understanding of the operational processes within EHEDG. I’ve been in close contact with the staff at the EHEDG Secretariat in Frankfurt and will continue to do so together with my new staff members, and I listen to as many EHEDG volunteers as possible. There’s so much to learn, and frankly, my head was spinning a bit with all the information I had to process, analyze and categorize. That’s why I am particularly happy Mirjam Steenaard, who 10
has a lot of knowledge of EHEDG, and the new team members Cristina Annoni and Phoebe Wang, whose tasks, amongst others, will be to offer support to EHEDG members and working groups all over the world. “ What does your role as EHEDG Operations Director entail? “My responsibilities are to first implement the transition of the secretarial processes from Germany to The Netherlands, including establishing the new office, recruiting of team members and securing knowledge transfer. Just like the Secretariat, we will help in establishing and managing working groups, technical committees and projects in cooperation with the chairpersons. Our role is also to support the EHEDG Board, the Executive Committee and Sub-Committees, and to assure that the values, the brand and activities of EHEDG are continuously communicated to
“A new team, new tasks, new challenges and new opportunities.” the members and outside world. I understood from the Foundation Board that, regarding the latter, the new team in the Netherlands will get slightly different roles and responsibilities, all in due time. And last but not least, I will also be responsible for implementing the approved annual EHEDG budgets.” Why did EHEDG decide to transfer the Secretariat from Germany to The Netherlands? “For various reasons, one of the most important is that, for legal reasons and to guarantee the independence of EHEDG, it was necessary to disconnect the EHEDG from the VDMA. Although the team members of the EHEDG Secretariat in Frankfurt worked for EHEDG, they were still on the payroll of the VDMA. EHEDG first looked into possibilities to move the Secretariat to a new location in Germany,