Foreword by the the chair

It is with pride that I welcome you to the 2018 ITM annual report. On behalf of the Board of Governors, I would like to thank everyone, internally and externally, for the achievements it outlines. For those of us involved in the governance of the Institute, it has been an intense transitional year due to two major evolutions: firstly in our governance structure itself and secondly due to the preparation of the succession in 2019 of our director of 24 years, Bruno Gryseels.

From the governance perspective the new structure, decided upon in 2017, came into force with the conversion of the former Board of Governors into a supervisory General Council and the investiture of a smaller, independent and dynamic board.

With admiration I saw the new General Council take on their first and essential task of electing the new Board of Governors. They did this with heart-felt diligence and assembled a group of highly qualified, multidisciplinary and independent experts who enthusiastically started their four-year mandates in June of 2018. The Council also took their internal regulations and the procedures to perform their supervisory role to task.

I wish for the Council to become a strong partner and sounding board for us governors. As dedicated stakeholders and through their diversity of representation, they can guide us at ITM through these often-tumultuous times. Our common focus in 2019 will be on establishing optimal working processes for the interactions between the Board and the Council, and allowing the Council to provide their multi-stakeholder perspectives on the long-term alignment of our mission, vision and values.

Thanks to the Council’s excellent selection of the Board of Governors, this newly formed body took on their role with vigour. In addition to facilitating external audits and other tasks, this was particularly demonstrated in the selection process of Dr Gryseels’ successor. This proved a challenging job, as we needed a person who could take the Institute further into the 21st century with a solid scientific approach while leveraging Dr Gryseels’ impressive legacy. I am happy to say we found that person in Marc-Alain Widdowson and while there will be a difficult goodbye to make, I look forward, from the summer of 2019, to be moving forward with him and the newly formed governance teams into another positive and lively transformative period for the Institute.

Cathy Berx
Governor of the Province of Antwerp Chair of the Board of Governors of ITM