SBS confirms mandate of Gunilla Almgren as President for a further four years

Brussels, 24 January 2022 – Following the vote held yesterday by our Board of Directors, we are delighted to announce the re-election of Gunilla Almgren as Small Business Standards President until the end of 2025. Furthermore, the Board also elected a new Vice-President for External Affairs and confirmed the mandates of the current Vice-President for Internal Affairs and Treasurer.

Upon her appointment, Gunilla Almgren, who has helped to consolidate SBS since its creation in 2013 as the voice of European SMEs in standardisation, thanked the Board for placing its trust and confidence in her abilities to assume the mandate of President for another four years.

When it comes to the future of SBS, she stressed that: ‘standards will play an important role in the digital and green transition. In the next years, and with the help of a motivated team, SBS will need to put efforts in increasing the SME representation in the development of standards that are key to the twin transition. It is essential SMEs do not lag behind and are able to profit from the opportunities offered by this transition.’

We are also pleased to announce the election of Samuele Broglio (Confartigianato Imprese, the Italian Association of Crafts and SMEs) as the new External Affairs Vice-President. Manager of a family business focusing on the manufacture of special windows and shutters, Mr. Broglio is involved as a technical expert in several standardisation committees at the national and European level. Upon his election, he declared he would like to focus his mandate on ‘strengthening the relation of SBS with similar international organisations representing SMEs interests in the standardisation process.’ He added he ‘will continue the discussions with European standards organisations to ensure standards meet SME needs and strengthen the relations with the International Standards Bodies, since more and more European standards are developed internationally’.

The Board also re-appointed Gérard Bobier (CMA France, the French Assembly of Craft Chambers) as Vice-President Internal Affairs. Discussing priorities for SBS for the upcoming years, Mr. Bobier stressed the importance of increasing the recognition of SBS as the organisation representing European SMEs in the field of standards and of further developing the SBS membership.

Finally, the Board renewed its trust in Tim Krögel (ZDH, the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts) as SBS Treasurer.

In November 2021, the SBS General Assembly elected a new Board for the period January 2022 to December 2025. The new Board was responsible for the election of the SBS President, Vice-Presidents and Treasurer for the same period. The SBS Board is composed as follows: