International engineering federation FIDIC (the International Federation of Consulting Engineers) has appointed Eric Chiang as its new chief operating officer.
Due to the expansion of its global business, FIDIC needs to strengthen its commercial and operational capabilities and the newly created chief operating officer position will play a key role in that process. In his new role, Chiang will have primary responsibility for all corporate services, conference and event programmes, strategic membership and stakeholder engagement and secondary responsibility for the financial performance across the FIDIC Group reporting to the CEO on key deliverables.
Chiang, an accountant who has significant experience working with professional bodies and multinational corporations in a range of business management areas including finance and operations, corporate governance, strategic planning and implementation, policy advocacy, events and operation re-engineering, starts his new role at FIDIC on 3 July 2023.
A fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and a fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Chiang joins FIDIC from the CFA Society Hong Kong, where he was managing director.
Commenting on Eric Chiang’s appointment, FIDIC CEO, Dr Nelson Ogunshakin OBE, said: “FIDIC has ambitious plans to grow its strategic membership and stakeholder engagement, commercial activities and increase the effectiveness of our global business and appointing this new role of chief operating officer will be a crucial staging post in making progress on our corporate plans and I am delighted to welcome Eric as FIDIC’s first COO. He has impressive commercial and leadership experience with membership organisations and in the wider business arena and I am looking forward to his leadership support and input in helping to expand FIDIC’s global business lines and improving their effectiveness and efficiency.”
FIDIC president Tony Barry commented: “The newly created role of chief operating officer is an important one for FIDIC. It will further professionalise the organisation’s approach and improve the planning and execution of all commercial and finance activities across the FIDIC group. I am delighted that Eric is joining our FIDIC team and look forward to him making an impact in the months and years ahead.”
Speaking about his arrival as FIDIC chief operating officer, Chiang said: “I am delighted to be taking on this new role at FIDIC at a very exciting time for the organisation as it looks to expand its commercial operations globally. FIDIC is an extremely well-regarded organisation in the international engineering, construction and infrastructure sector and I am looking forward to applying my experience of working in multinational corporations, professional bodies, international accounting practices and business consulting to increase the effectiveness, efficiency and financial performance of FIDIC’s operations across a number of areas.”
Chiang will be based in the UK, with regular visits to FIDIC’s offices in Geneva, and will work closely with FIDIC’s senior management team and other staff members focusing initially on finance, conferences and events and membership engagement.
FIDIC, the International Federation of Consulting Engineers, is the global representative body for national associations of consulting engineers and represents over one million engineering professionals and 40,000 firms in more than 100 countries worldwide. The buildings and infrastructure sector in which FIDIC members work contributes around US$36 trillion to global GDP.
