From the Desk of the ASEM President, Dr. Geert Letens, PEM(TM)

Now the summer has come and passed, the harvest season is about to start in the Northern Hemisphere. September and October are critical months for our society that lead to our annual conference, where we typically recognize important contributors with awards, and take the time to evaluate the overall performance of the society while we prepare the transition to a new leadership team. And there is good news to be shared. EMJ achieves submission rates that almost double our previous records, international collaboration continues to grow and closely related to this, our professional membership levels are up again. I see two main drivers for this.

First, ASEM has developed a strong value package that is attractive for young and senior managers for industry, government and academia. The Engineering Management Journal, our Engineering Management Body of Knowledge, the Engineering Management Handbook, certification and professional development (don’t miss the chance to register for our exam preparation training at the conference: https://asem.org/event-2305685 (there are still a few seats left), webinars, practice periodical, newsletter, etc.

Second, we have invested in growing professional sections and strategic partnerships around the world. This creates visibility for ASEM to engineers from all continents and stimulates membership growth of the society while at the same time further increasing our value proposition. Returning home from a successful meeting in Xi’an and Beijing with our partners from the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), allows me to illustrate this. While the ASEM delegation supported the 10th International Forum on Engineering Management focusing on Large-scale Infrastructure Projects with six keynote speakers (Dave Wyrick, Beth Cudney, Steve Wang, Lida Xu, Fei Dai and Geert Letens), we also managed to prepare agreements to translate and publish our EM BoK in China, to setup an ASEM section in China, to explore options for certification events in China, etc. Last but not least, we identified ways to intensify our support of the Frontiers of Engineering Management Journal of CAE. This will not only drive our value and growth strategy for new members in China, but will provide current members of ASEM additional opportunities to publish their work and to learn from engineering managers around the world.

However, as Engineering Managers, we realize better than anyone else, that the long term success of an organization is determined by the development of new products. This is no different for ASEM. As a result I am happy to announce that, thanks to the leadership of our editors John Farr and Jimmy Gandhi, the new edition of our Engineering Management Handbook is ready to go to print. At the same time however, Dr. Alice Squires, Director of our Product Development Committee is putting a core team together to develop a strategic roadmap for products that will further support the field of engineering management. This includes planning the future editions of the EM Bok and the EM Handbook, as well as defining a suite of new products such as an EM pocket guide, EM checklists, and an EM Glossary to be part of a complete EM Toolbox for engineering managers.

I look forward to sharing more details on all these exciting evolutions at the annual business meeting of our conference. See you soon in Charlotte!

Geert Letens, PhD, PEM(TM)

ASEM President 2015-2016

Please send your thoughts and comments directly to Geert at: President@asem.org