Canadian nominated for IEC presidency

2003-04-02

The Standards Council of Canada has nominated Tony Flood as a candidate for the presidency of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The election will take place in 2003, with the winning candidate serving as president from 2005 to 2007.

The Standards Council of Canada is pleased to nominate Tony Flood for election to the position of President of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for 2005 to 2007.

Mr. Flood is no stranger to anyone involved in the technical or administrative bodies of IEC. Over the last seven years, he has served in a variety of roles, including:

    * member of the Standardization Management Board (SMB);
    * member of the Marketing Committee (MC);
    * member of the Council Board (CB);
    * member of the Asia-Pacific Steering Group (APSG);
    * Convenor of the Global Relevance Task Force (GRTF); and
    * Convenor of the CA ad-hoc group to implement the recommendations of the GRTF.

During this time, he has also served as President of the Canadian National Committee of the IEC (CNC/IEC).

He brings to his work with IEC a strong international orientation and experience, thanks to having lived and worked around the world, including in the United Kingdom, Scandinavia and Canada. He has engaged in standards development work in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, and is currently President of CANENA, a group seeking harmonization of electrotechnical standards in the Americas. In his capacity as Vice-President, International Standards at Electro-Federation Canada, he represents Canadian electrical equipment manufacturers in international standardization forums.

"Mr. Flood has demonstrated his ability to lead a group, whether it is large or small, technical or managerial, to consensus," said Peter Clark, executive director of the Standards Council, "especially when the starting positions are polarized. From a Canadian perspective, it's hard to face the prospect of his devoting even more time and energy to the global community instead of to Canada, but we feel that Tony can make a very positive difference to the continued success of IEC."

Besides bringing a wealth of experience and expertise to IEC's highest office (www.iec.ch/presidents-e.htm), a Tony Flood presidency would also have important symbolic value, according to the Standards Council. The previous President of IEC was from the United States, the current President is European, and the next President, whose term begins in 2002, will be Japanese. Establishing a tradition of rotating the presidency among the regions of the world would help to reinforce IEC's image as a truly international body.

Mr. Flood was born, raised and educated in the United Kingdom, and lived in Scandinavia before settling in Canada 30 years ago. His industry experience has included positions in technical sales, engineering and marketing.