Christian Duyckaerts named new president of Fespa

Christian Duyckaerts has been inaugurated as the new president of Fespa, the global federation of associations for the wide-format printing community. The inauguration took place during the annual Fespa gala night on 10 May during the FESPA 2017 global print expo in Hamburg, Germany (8 - 12 May).

12 May 2017 | By Dibyajyoti Sarma

Duyckaerts is Fespa’s 17th president, and will be supported during his term of presidential office by Vice-President Christophe Aussenac. Duyckaerts joined the board of Fespa in 2002, representing the Belgian printing trade association Febelgra, where he presides over the screen and digital workgroup.

Duyckaerts is also the managing director and founder of Retail Communicators, a visual communications specialist, delivering brand retail solutions from concept and print to installation for many international household brands.

In his inaugural speech, Duyckaerts said: “My ambition is to continue the good work of my predecessors, taking Fespa to the next level. Our challenge is to prepare Fespa for 2020 and beyond, to exploit the area of digital transformation where our industry is facing many opportunities, not just with web-to-print but also with omnichannel solutions and many areas of customisation.  We will help our global community to adapt to these new trends and evolutions with conferences and summits to share best practice, knowledge, information and friendship, along with many other initiatives.”

As president, Duyckaerts will chair the Fespa board to oversee the successful execution of the organisation’s strategy by the executive team, led by Fespa CEO Neil Felton. The Fespa president is elected by FESPA’s 37 member associations for a term of two years.

The FESPA board

Christian Duyckaerts, president (Belgium)

Christophe Aussenac, vice-president (France)

Enrico Steijn, treasurer (Netherlands)

Lascelle Barrow (UK)

Gyorgy Kovacs (Hungary)

Anders Nilsson (Sweden)

Olaf Skilbred (Norway)

Thomas Struckmeier (Germany)