About CEN

A civil engineer and entrepreneur, Mr Stefano Calzolari is the founder and the General Manager of SCLIngegneria Strutturale, an SME with a team of 22 professionals operating in the field of structural design. He was the President of Milan’s Order of Engineers from 2009 and 2016, and has been a Member of the Board of the “National Council of Engineers” since then, where he is in charge of standardization and certification of technical competences. Furthermore, he has gained an extensive experience in standardization, both at technical level, as the Italian expert in CEN/TC 53 ‘Temporary Works Equipment’ and Chairman of CEN/TC 344 ‘Steel Static Storage System’, and at governance level: since 2017 he is UNI’s Vice-President. To these skills, he adds a professional background as an expert of qualifications, especially in the field of competences: he founded and chaired the Italian Agency for Voluntary Competences Certification, CERT’ING. In June 2020, Mr Stefano Calzolari was elected as the next President of CEN (2022-2024). His mandate as President started in January 2022.

Mrs Annika Andreasen is the CEO of the Swedish Institute for Standards, SIS. At SIS she previously held the position of Head of Standardization. Before SIS, she built a career in the private sector, working in a variety of leadership positions for two of Sweden’s most important multinational companies, Saab AB (2008-2017) and Ericsson AB (1992-2008). A software engineer by training, Mrs Andreasen started her career as a business consultant. She holds a degree in Electronics and Data from Blekinge University and studied Marketing and Business Economics at Uppsala University. After serving two years as a CEN Board Member, she was elected as CEN’s Vice-President Technical for a two-year mandate starting in January 2022.

Mr Olivier Peyrat has been Director General of the French Association for Standardization (AFNOR) since 2003. He has completed studies at the Ecole Polytechnique, the École nationale supérieure des télécommunications (ENST), Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (Executive MBA) and INSEAD Business School. Mr Peyrat has a long-standing professional experience in the fields of certification and standardization and has chaired numerous standardization committees and groups at national, European and international levels. He became Vice-President (Finance) of ISO in January 2013. He is an Ingénieur en Chef au Corps des Mines (Hon) and Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. He has been elected to serve as CEN Vice-President Policy for a two-year mandate starting in January 2022.

Mr Jacob Mehus is Managing Director of Standards Norway (SN). He has previously held positions as Marketing Manager and Marketing Director with the organization, and he headed the sales company Standard Online for a while. Before joining Standards Norway, his work experience included research at the Norwegian Institute of Building Research. Mr Mehus has extensive domestic and international experience in management, project management, marketing and sales. Among other things, he has worked extensively with IT development as a prerequisite for business development and rationalization, and he is concerned with standardization as a force for innovation. Mr Jacob Mehus holds a Master of Science degree from Iowa State University and has post-graduate courses in economics and management from Stanford University, USA. He has been elected as CEN Vice-President Finance for the period from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021 and for a second mandate for the period from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2023.

Mr Urs Fischer is the CEO of the Swiss Association for Standards, SNV, since 2017. Before SNV, he built a career in the private sector, working in a variety of positions for a series of companies, in Switzerland and internationally: an aircraft engineer by training, he started in aircraft maintenance to then move on to leadership positions in the space and aircraft industry. His last position before joining SNV was as Head of Product Technology at Vetropack AG. He also built an extensive expertise in European and international standardization, serving as a national delegate for both CEN and ISO. Mr Fischer holds a degree in Aircraft Engineering from Transair College in Geneva and a second degree in Mechanical Engineering from ITA College ITA in Zürich. He was elected as CEN’s Board Member for a two-year mandate starting in January 2022.

Mr Javier García Díaz is the Director General of the Spanish Association for Standardization (UNE) since 2017. Previously to this, he was Standards Director and Head of International Standardization  Affairs of the Spanish Association for Standardization and certification (AENOR) but also Pre-Accession Advisor of the European Commission to Bulgaria in the field of Free Movement of Goods and member of the CEN and the CENELEC Technical Boards (BT). Between 2008 and 2013, he was Chairman of the Technical Committee Management Group of the CEN/BT. He served as chair of the CEN Strategic Advisory Group on Services. Mr García Díaz is a graduate in chemical engineering from the Complutense University in Madrid, holds postgraduate qualifications in Business Administration and Marketing Management. He followed Diplomatic Studies at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is currently ISO Vice-President Technical management elect and CEN Board Member.

Mr Pambos Kammas has been the Director of Standardization for the Cyprus Organisation for Standardization (CYS) since 2006. In this position, he has represented CYS in the CEN and CENELEC General Assembly since 2007. He is also the Director of CYS Vocational Training Center. Before this, from 2004 to 2006 Mr Kammas was Director for Certification at the Cyprus Certification Company, where he started working after more than a decade at OEB, the "Cyprus Employers' and Industrialists' Federation".
At the European level, he has covered a series of roles: among others, Mr Kammas was an elected member of CEN's Administrative Council (CA) for 2 consequent 2-year terms(2014-2017), and Chair of CEN's Certification Board from 2015 to 2017 and member of CENELEC's CA on 2011-12. Furthermore, he was a member of the CENELEC Technical Board (BT) from 2006 and 2008 and of CEN BT from 2007 to 2014. Mr Kammas holds a BBA in Management from Cyprus College, in Nicosia, and an MBA in Marketing from the University of New Haven in the USA. He was elected as CEN’s Board Member for a two-year mandate starting in January 2023.

Mrs Geraldine Larkin has been Chief Executive at NSAI, the National Standards Authority of Ireland, since March 2017. Before being appointed at the head of NSAI, Geraldine was the Irish regulator in diverse industries, including the private security sector. As the first regulator of the private security industry, Mrs Larkin drew heavily on Irish and European standards including in the areas of security guarding, electronic security and cash conveyancing in order to regulate the developing industry. Previously, as a career civil servant she held a diverse portfolio of policy responsibilities including in the areas of policing, crime, anti-drug trafficking, criminal law, human rights and European law. She represented Ireland in various EU and international committees in these subject matter areas. Mrs Larking holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA – Technology Management) from the Open University. Mrs Larkin served as CENELEC’s Vice-President Policy and has now been elected to CEN’s Board for a mandate starting in January 2022.

Mr Ruggero Lensi has been the Director General of the Italian Standardization Organization (UNI) since February 2017. He joined UNI in 1995, holding the positions of Head of the Standardization Department between 2000 and 2003, Technical Director until 2010 and Director of External Relations, New Business and Innovation until February 2017. Mr Lensi represented UNI for ten years on the CEN Technical Board (BT), where he served as Convenor of several Working Groups and also chaired the CEN/BT Technical Committee Management Group between 2004 and 2007. He holds a degree in Civil Engineering from the Polytechnic University in Milan. He was CEN Vice-President Technical from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2021, and now has been elected for a mandate as CEN’s Board Member starting in January 2022.

Mr Ingars Pilmanis has been the Head of Latvian Standard (LVS) since 2008, first as Director and now Board Member. Mr Ingars Pilmanis holds a Master degree in Business Administration and Information Systems from the University of Latvia, and has given lectures for a number of years in the Riga Technical University on quality infrastructure and assurance. Before moving to LVS, he held numerous responsibilities in the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia. At different times, as Director of the Department he was in charge of policy in the field of standardization, accreditation metrology as well as construction worked with approximation of national legislation with the EU in field of free movement of goods. He was also the President of the Latvian Quality Association. He was elected as CEN's Board Member for a two-year mandate starting in January 2023.

Dr Scott Steedman is Director of Standards at BSI, the National Standards Body of the United Kingdom. Formerly an academic at Cambridge University, Dr Steedman spent 20 years in industry working for major consulting and contracting companies in the construction sector. He is an Executive Director on the Group Board of BSI and a non-executive Director of the Port of London Authority. He was elected President of the European Council for Construction Research, Development and Innovation in 1997, a position he held for 11 years. Dr Steedman has been a Vice-President of both the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Royal Academy of Engineering. In 2010, he was awarded a CBE for his services to engineering. In 2012, Dr Steedman served as CEN Vice-President Policy from 2013 to March 2017.

Mrs Helena Vänska has been the CEO of the Finnish Standards Association, SFS since 2019. Before that, she built an extensive career in both the private and the public sector: she was the Managing Director at the Finnish Petroleum and Biofuels Association for ten years, the Chief Policy Adviser of the Confederation of Finnish Industries and served in the EU Secretariat of Finland’s Prime Minister’s office and as Chief Adviser to the Ministry of Transport and Communications. Mrs Vänska holds a Master of Science in Forest Economics and Marketing. She has been elected as CEN’s Board Member for a two-year mandate starting in January 2022.

Mr Christoph Winterhalter is the Chairman of the Executive Board of DIN, the German national standardization body. Prior to joining DIN, he worked in various engineering, R&D and product management functions in Germany, Norway and the USA. He then spent more than 20 years in industry working for the ABB group, as Director of the German Research Centre for ABB Corporate until he was promoted head of ABB’s global Machinery Controls and Automation business in 2013. Since July 2016 he joined DIN as Chairman of the Executive Board driving customer orientation and digital transformation within the standardization system. Mr. Winterhalter was elected member of the CEN Administrative board and the ISO Council in 2017. He served as CEN Vice-President Policy from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2021, and has been elected as CEN's Board Member for a two-years mandate starting in January 2022.