Hector Fratty

Special report from Geoff Draper – GTB President

Last week, 26-30 November, GTB held its 126th plenary session in Lisbon (Portugal) with meetings of its General Assembly, Technical Steering Committee, Committee of Experts and its Working Groups. Portugal, along with Belgium, France, Germany, UK, Italy, Norway, Netherlands and Switzerland, was one of the nine European countries that founded GTB and held the first meeting from 5-10 May 1952 in Brussels. Last week, 66 years later, The GTB General Assembly approved a historical restructuring proposal that introduces a full time Secretary General to be based in new independent headquarters in Torino (Italy) with a strengthened secretariat. I believe that it is appropriate to describe this as the “GTB LISBON ACCORD” as the fourth significant event in the history of GTB after it’s founding in 1952, its transformation into a legal association in 2011 and the granting of its special consultative status with ECOSOC, the UN Economic and Social Council in 2014.

Following the decision of the GTB General Assembly I am pleased to announce that Davide Puglisi, who has been doing tremendous work as GTB Executive Secretary since 2004, will take up the full-time career position of GTB Secretary General from 01 January 2019. He will be responsible for the management of all aspects of GTB. I know that Davide will make a significant contribution to the future success of GTB as it continues to evolve to meet the challenges of the rapidly changing global regulatory world.