Christian Duyckaerts has been inaugurated as the new President of FESPA, the global federation of Associations for the wide-format printing community.

The inauguration took place during the annual FESPA Gala Night on Wednesday 10 May during the FESPA 2017 global print expo in Hamburg, Germany (8 - 12 May).

Christian is FESPA's 17th President, and will be supported during his term of presidential office by Vice-President Christophe Aussenac.

Christian joined the Board of FESPA in 2002, representing the Belgian printing trade association Febelgra, where he presides over the screen and digital workgroup.

Christian is also Managing Director and founder of Retail Communicators, a visual communications specialist delivering brand retail solutions from concept and print to installation for many international household brands.

Christian was previously CEO and co-owner of two of the largest POS and outdoor print production companies in Belgium; Print&Display and GSI Printing. He started his print career at Hamiscreen after completing his graphic technology studies at TSM and the HIGRO school.

In his inaugural speech, Christian said: "My ambition is to continue the good work of my predecessors, taking FESPA forward to the next level. Our challenge is to prepare FESPA for 2020 and beyond, to exploit the area of digital transformation where our industry is facing many opportunities, not just with web-to-print but also with omnichannel solutions and many areas of customisation.

"We will help our global community to adapt to these new trends and evolutions with conferences and summits to share best practice, knowledge, information and friendship, along with many other initiatives. FESPA will continue to build bridges between the printing industry and the end users of print and graphics, invest in the industry and focus on areas such as textile print, packaging, interior design, retail and many more. We will continuously look for synergies in favour of our members and work for a bright future for print."

As President, Christian will Chair the FESPA Board to oversee the successful execution of the organisation's strategy by the executive team, led by FESPA CEO Neil Felton. The FESPA President is elected by FESPA's 37 member Associations for a term of two years.

The FESPA Board is now as follows:

Christian Duyckaerts - President (Belgium)
Christophe Aussenac - Vice President (France)
Enrico Steijn - Treasurer (Netherlands)
Lascelle Barrow - (UK)
Gyorgy Kovacs (Hungary)
Anders Nilsson (Sweden)
Olaf Skilbred (Norway)
Thomas Struckmeier (Germany)