SCI hits
Europe
In October 2007, SCI took further steps in meeting its global imperatives for this year, successfully launching SCI Europe in Germany |
 |
| Attending the SCI European launch, left to right: Richard Bahu,
SCI Business Strategy Group; Jack Melling, SCI trustee and
honorary treasurer; Jon Poole, SCI deputy chief executive and
director of business development, SCI International; Wolfgang
Viehmann, general manager SCI Europe |
SCI celebrated the official opening of
its new SCI Europe office in Frankfurt on 24 October 2007.
The special evening event was prefaced by a Business
Strategy Group meeting with a particularly European
theme, following which, Jack Melling, SCI trustee and
honorary treasurer asked everyone present to raise
a glass to toast the future success of SCI’s new
regional office.
In July, SCI Members' News described the reasoning for
SCI’s move into mainland Europe (read story) . Europe, India and
China are three influential regions in which SCI is
looking to develop its membership base and operational
activity. India, is in fact, due to hold its official
opening event on 23 November 2007 in Mumbai. Together
with SCI’s existing international groups, these new
international offices will enable SCI to develop a far
more global view of the chemical industry.
| ‘This first meeting set the
scene perfectly for
what SCI can provide its
European members’ |
Holding a Business Strategy Group (BSG) meeting
alongside the official opening was, itself, significant. Although SCI Europe will look to develop its membership
base to cover a broad cross-section of technical
scientific areas, it will particularly focus on the business
application of science which very much plays into
the remit of the BSG.
Two excellent quality keynote speakers led a thought-provoking
discussion on the future of the chemical
industry in Europe. Werner Kreuz, vice president of AT
Kearney opened the evening with a challenging presentation
entitled ‘Can the German chemical industry
survive in a global world?’ A different viewpoint was
provided by Martin Reitz, managing director for the
Global Investment Banking Division of UBS whose
presentation, ‘Strategies of global investment’, provided
a first hand perspective of the changing dynamics
within the European chemical industry.
 |
| Wolfgang Viehmann, general manager SCI Europe:
pictured in his new office in Frankfurt |
Amongst those who attended, the event was seen
as being ‘very well organised, with an interesting overview
of the global markets and its demands on a local
scale. As a first meeting, this type of analysis of the
German chemical industry set the scene perfectly for
what SCI can provide to its European members’.
Wolfgang Viehmann, general manager of SCI
Europe, plans to roll out similar high-level discussion
meetings across other areas in mainland Europe as a
way of attracting and engaging new members. ‘I was
very pleased with the quality of the speakers at this
opening event and already have a programme of similar
discussion-based meetings planned, the first of
which will be in Lyon on 12 March 2008’. |
