In the General Assembly meeting on the 24th of October in Milan, ETIM International elected Jan Janse as new president, as successor of Franz Ernst, who is retiring by the end of this year. Also Hans Henning and Magnus Siren were elected as new board member. 

Franz Ernst, who has been president since June 2013, now will retire by the end of this year. The ETIM General Assembly has expressed its enormous appreciation for the effort, energy and commitment that Franz has devoted to ETIM, acknowledging his key role in the current success of ETIM.

Jan Janse is elected as the first independent president, meaning he is not representing any of the member countries. Jan Janse has been working for Sonepar for the last 12 years, first as managing director for Technische Unie in the Netherlands, the last 3 years working for Sonepar Corporate to lead Digital Business Development with a focus on Northern Europe. As a former board member of ETIM and GS1 in the Netherlands, he is very familiar with the topics involved. He can help ETIM International to develop a vision and solid strategy for the next years

Hans Henning was elected as new board member to replace Marc Habets, who is now working fulltime for ETIM International since April 2017 as technical director. Hans Henning is currently vice-president of ETIM Germany. In his daily occupation he is executive director of the German electrical wholesalers association VEG, as well as for the HVAC and sanitary wholesalers association DG Haustechnik. He is an economist and can contribute to the promotion of ETIM and convince other organizations of the use of ETIM.

Finally a new board position was added to the ETIM International board to have a better representation of the HVAC and Sanitary sector. Magnus Siren was elected as representative for this sector, his nomination in agreement with the other Nordic countries. Magnus Siren is managing director of the Finnish federation and central database. From origin an engineer, he has been involved in ETIM for some time, since it was presented for HVAC as well on international level.