New group formed for future leaders of the international consulting engineering industry.
FIDIC’s newly renamed Future Leaders group promotes the next generation of engineering professionals who aspire to lead the industry. Future Leaders chair, Cosmin Tobolcea, highlights the thinking behind the new grouping and its future plans.
Aspiring industry leaders from all around the world have a wealth of positive opportunities to develop their potential, with advice, mentoring and support from FIDIC’s newly established Future Leaders group.
Previously known as the Young Professionals steering group, the Future Leaders group will be launched at the FIDIC annual conference in Mexico City and our members thank that the new name reflects a much more aspirational approach for FIDIC’s bright and talented young professionals.
In fact, the name change very much reflects what our members aspire to be – which is the future leaders of our industry. We are also rebranding ourselves, with a new website and logo, and will unveil our new look at the Young Professionals symposium at the FIDIC annual conference in Mexico. We are also pleased that we have the full support of FIDIC CEO Nelson Ogunshakin, who will be present when we launch, and I think this is very important in our transformation from Young Professionals to Future Leaders.
Going back to the name change, when you are saying young professionals, you are only thinking young people, but a lot of young professionals have their own businesses, sometimes very big businesses. They are CEOs and leaders of their own companies and the new name reflects the fact that we now have a better platform for them to develop and become future leaders of the industry.
We have been busy preparing the ground for Future Leaders since last year’s FIDIC annual conference in Berlin. We’ve had a lot of support from FIDIC, the board and all its committees and we work well together. We have been building and developing a range of networking opportunities, seminars, workshops and presentations around the world, both online and at regional conferences and events, including the recent ASPAC event in New Delhi.
When we launch Future Leaders in Mexico, we will also present the first edition of our Future Leaders booklet, which brings together very exciting ideas and contributions from some of the most promising future leaders around the world. Networking is also very import for us. It’s important to have platforms to connect future leaders to help nurture their development, to help companies collaborate, to work on great projects together and to become the big-hitters of our industry.
Finally, I would also encourage any FIDIC member associations who don’t yet have a young professionals’ group to get in touch. We can help with everything they need to organise their group. We totally support anyone wanting to join us and we will assist with all the communication and support a member association could need.
Cosmin Tobolcea is chair of the FIDIC Future Leaders group and also general manager of the Romanian consulting engineering firm Pro Toby.
