I have now spent four years on the APIA Board, including spending the last year as Vice President. It was a great honour to be to be elected APIA President at the 2013 APIA Convention, especially with the Convention having been held in my home town of Adelaide.
I want to place on record my thanks to the APIA members for re-electing me as a Director once again and to my co-directors for having faith in me to fill the role of President. I thank Kevin Lester for his leadership as President over the last two years and commend Kevin on his achievements in the role. I also congratulate Ashley Kellett on his appointment as Vice President and Mark Cooper on his re-appointment as Treasurer.
It is a great sign for our Association to have 11 candidates standing for the seven director vacancies. I offer my congratulations to the returning directors and welcome newcomer, Dave Maloney, and Mark Twycross, who is returning to the Board.
I also offer my profound thanks to those candidates that weren’t successful this year. It takes strength of character to stand for such a position and I encourage them to persist with their goals as each candidate possesses impressive credentials.
In my early membership years, I viewed APIA as being a lot of fun and good for business. However, once I became more intimately involved and gained a better understanding of the breadth of APIA’s operations, I also realised how important it is for our industry. In my four years on the Board, I have learnt an immense amount about good governance and have seen how well the Secretariat works to deliver a great organisation for the pipeline industry and its members. APIA is without a doubt one of Australia’s leading industry peak bodies.
APIA’s first-class governance, strategy, leadership and management are key contributors to the organisation’s success, which in turn delivers the financial capacity to further develop the organisation. I look forward to making a significant contribution to the further growth of APIA during my term as President.
Particular areas of interest for me include the leading edge development pathways that APIA has established for our members’ workforce and research for the future of our industry. I also look forward to supporting the Board, Chief Executive, Business Manager and Secretariat to ensure APIA continues to build value for members.
Finding a good solution to land development around pipeline corridors and understanding the enormous opportunities that exist for our members in the gas sector are other topical areas of interest.
The next two years will be challenging and exciting, but APIA has placed itself in a great position to be the voice on policy that will support the growth of the pipeline industry.
I am very keen to hear your views on the pipeline industry and your views on how APIA can assist your particular organisations, so please feel free to contact me.
Mark Dayman, President