The 40th EA General Assembly (GA) meeting held on 22-23 November 2017 in Berlin, Germany, was the last one chaired by Thomas Facklam, whose chairmanship of EA is coming to a close at the end of this year.
EA Members paid Thomas great and warm tribute for his outstanding contribution to the everyday activities and success of EA. Thomas has been serving various positions in the EA Executive Committee for 17 years: first, he was the Vice-Chairman of EA from 2000 to 2005, then the Chair of the EA Multilateral Agreement Council (MAC) from 2010 to 2013, and finally the Chairman of EA from 2014 to 2017.
During the EAGA meeting, Hans Ingels from the European Commission DG GROW expressed his personal satisfaction for the successful collaboration that could develop with EA during Thomas mandate: “Thomas has brought a strong contribution to the professionalization of EA by developing, among other things, a closer cooperation with the European Commission and placing EA as a key player in a global network. Everyone in the Commission who met with Thomas shares the opinion that he is an outstanding Chair, particularly most efficient in promoting accreditation in the single market. Thomas smile is famous; Thomas is always so convincing that it is difficult to say “no” to him! Accreditation means working with and for people, and that is very well carried on by Thomas, who has always been marking himself out by his tolerance, kindness, smartness and honesty.”
In addition to his responsibilities in EA, Thomas was the Chief Executive Director of the Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle GmbH (DAkkS), the German national accreditation body, during 2010 and 2011. For the previous 17 years, Thomas managed TGA GmbH as Chief Executive Director. He was also a key player in the reorganization of the German accreditation system, which culminated with the setting up of DAkkS in 2009.
Furthermore, Thomas was elected the Vice-Chair of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) from 1998 to 2002, when he became the Chair of it until 2009. He has also been very much committed as DAkkS and German delegate in numerous national and international standards committees and working groups.
This most active and brilliant professional career was fittingly celebrated during the last EA General Assembly, where EA Members who had come with specialities from their respective country waved and offered them as a special EA gift to Thomas at the end of the GA meeting. This multinational sign of gratitude also demonstrated how EA membership is diversified but still harmonised for Thomas’ celebration!
Thomas, who certainly will remember the large EA family for a long time, said he would continue with DAkkS and accreditation for a while. No doubt the entire accreditation community will miss him a lot!