A Message from the New IAPRI President

My story with IAPRI started close to 25 years ago, at the 20^th IAPRI Symposium on Packaging (2001) hosted by COBRO, a former member from Poland. I don’t remember how I managed to attend and present as my company was not a member at that time but have great memories of what was one of the first presentations I gave in front of an international audience.

In 2006, IAPRI opened its membership to corporations, and Nestlé research became one of the very first corporate members. Since then, IAPRI and its members have been on my side along my career, providing me extraordinary development opportunities, including broadening my professional and sometimes friendship networks and marking key milestones in my development.

In 2007 for example, I had been invited to give my very first Keynote lecture at the member conference in Windsor, which still is a very important step in my career and was a great motivator to pursue it in R&D: In 2017, in collaboration with Eric Martine from the HEIG-Vd, I had the pleasure to co-organize and co-host the 28^th Symposium on Packaging in Lausanne which many remember as a great success. In 2018, I became the first corporate member to join the Board of Directors, which in turn brings me today in front of my keyboard writing these lines as the new President of the Association, of which I am very proud. All these events make that IAPRI is very dear to me.

I would like here to express my gratitude towards my predecessors in this role, especially Jay and Roland, for having built this extraordinary Association, gathering many of the most renowned Research and Education Institutes in the field of packaging.

Like other associations, IAPRI suffers since the pandemic with a slight member erosion which has been and still needs to be addressed by the board to guarantee that IAPRI keeps a critical mass to retain its representativity.

One of the causes is linked to the fact that although IAPRI’s membership is institutional and not personal, many of our member organizations only have one active delegate, meaning that the departure of this person often means the end of the membership.

It could prove very helpful if all member delegates could identify colleagues with potential interest in IAPRI activities and propose they become associates. This will give them access to IAPRI’s member pages, the proceedings of most past events and the newsletter. In return IAPRI would gain visibility within the current member institutes and have a broader contact list in case of the departure of a delegate, potentially helping to retain members.

The board has also initiated reflection on how to broaden its membership base, by improving visibility and by evaluating current and future membership benefits. Again, everyone can contribute, by presenting IAPRI to research or commercial partners and by sharing your views; the Secretary General’s and my inboxes are always open…

This work on guaranteeing the sustainability of IAPRI will continue and I am confident that together with my colleagues on the executive committee, Mieke, Roland and Ed, the board of directors and all members, we will succeed in further increasing the representativity of IAPRI in the packaging research and education community.

Looking forward to seeing many of you next year in Zhuzhou, where the 25^th IAPRI World Packaging Conference will be hosted by the Hunan University of Technology,


                   Yves