The Annual General Meeting is currently coming to a close online, but we are delighted to inform you that Ecsite now has a new President: Bruno Maquart, Chairman and CEO of Universcience in Paris, France. Several Trustees have also been elected or re-elected.
Get to know more about the new President & Board on the dedicated page.
New Presidency
“It is a great honour for me to be elected as Ecsite President,” stated Bruno Maquart, upon the announcement at the AGM. “I can assure you I will be fully dedicated to Ecsite and its members, and committed to shape with all of you the future of our field”.
As a member of the Ecsite Board since 2017 and Ecsite Vice-President since 2020, Bruno Maquart succeeds Herbert Münder, Director of Universum® Bremen (Germany), as president for a two-year mandate.
Bruno named a few priorities for his mandate: the implementation of the new strategy, a major achievement. “In 2020, Ecsite adopted a new strategy. That is a major achievement. We owe special thanks to Herbert and to all members involved in the process. It is the result of an intense and unprecedented collaborative work. It is now a question of implementing it, paying special attention to Ecsite sustainability.” He also stressed the importance of developing a 'members-first' attitude and playing a greater role towards members’ needs, whatever the size, type and location. He looked to the future, where we must all innovate, be bolder and embrace the future, while caring for one another. Finally, he underlined that Ecsite had dramatically evolved over the last few months and that this must be extended, with the network continuing to reinvent itself. “We must all continue to move forward, having faith in our individual as well as collective capacity for invention. We are a group of creative institutions, listening to changes in the world and convinced of the importance of the role of science in our societies.”
The new Ecsite President was appointed Chairman and CEO of Universcience in 2015, and he was reconfirmed last December for a further five-year mandate running until the end of 2025. He has been serving as Ecsite Vice-President since last year; he said that “this was very helpful during the pandemic, where we have come together more frequently to deal with the issues that the crisis has raised, thanks to Catherine Franche (Ecsite's Executive Director), the Executive Committee and the Board of Trustees. It is undoubtedly through the last year, more than ever, that I felt the importance of Ecsite as a community and that my desire to serve it as President was born”.
Bruno has a scientific background, being an agricultural engineer by training. As a civil servant, his career has been spent in two sectors of public action: social affairs and culture in which he held several management positions. He has solid experience in managing organisations and practiced institutional relations at the highest political level.
Update 8 May 2021: Due to Bruno Maquart's election as President of Ecsite, there was a vacancy for Vice-President. In a Board meeting following the AGM on 7 May, the Board unanimously elected Ulrike Kastrup, Director of focusTerra (Zurich, Switzerland) as the new Vice-President of Ecsite. Kim Gladstone Herlev, Executive Director of Experimentarium (Hellerup, Denmark) was also unanimously re-elected Treasurer. We wish them both every success!
Trustees election
Several Trustee's seats were up for election - they were elected or re-elected:
- Copernicus Science Centre (Warsaw, Poland) - Robert Firmhofer, Chief Executive Officer
- Technopolis®, the Flemish Science Centre (Mechelen, Belgium) - Stephane Berghmans, Chief Executive Officer
- Psiquadro (Perugia, Italy) - Leonardo Alfonsi, Director
- Stiftung Neanderthal Museum (Mettmann, Germany) - Baerbel Auffermann, Director
- Rijksmuseum Boerhaave (Leiden, the Netherlands) - Amito Haarhuis, Director
- Natural History Museum (London, United Kingdom) - Clare Matterson CBE, Executive Director of Engagement
- focusTerra (Zurich, Switzerland) - Ulkrike Kastrup, Director
- Experimentarium (Hellerup, Denmark) - Kim Gladstone Herlev, Executive Director
A warm thank you
To the Trustee finishing her mandate:
Past Presidency
- NEMO Science Centre (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - Marjolein van Breemen, Director