Friends, it is an honor to serve as your ASEM President and I look forward to the upcoming year. I hope that each of you, whether members of long standing or new members from recent conferences, will feel free to reach out to me with any comments or suggestions to make this YOUR society. I hope that many of you were able to share your thoughts in the recent survey and I want to promise you that we are listening. We will spend the year expanding our professional training offerings and making sure that all products and services fit your needs as engineering managers, whether in academia or industry.

Speaking of conferences, another hearty thank you to our hosts, technical program committee, and our wonderful ASEM WHQ staff for making the 2018 IAC an amazing success! A special thank you to three wonderful women: Angie Cornelius, Ean Ng, and Denise Engelbrecht. I think all will agree that they were the life and soul of the meeting! Wow! What an incredible program of offerings, surrounded by an unbelievable venue! I came back energized and proud to be part of ASEM; I hope all who attended felt the same.

When I say that this is your society, I truly mean that and hope that each of you will consider opportunities to give back to ASEM and help it grow. There are several opportunities for service across a range of activities. We are actively looking for committed volunteers for our professional membership and professional/product development committees. We’re also looking for an Associate Executive Director to support operational needs with the World Headquarters and will send out separate communications on this soon.

Also, it is important that we look back at all we’ve accomplished in the past year and offer our heartfelt thanks to those who have rotated out of previous positions! Several others have changed positions, so I’ll save introductions of the incoming team for next time. Sincere thanks to Trish Simo Kush, Brian Galli, Patrick Kush, and Tugrul Daim as they complete their service. We won’t say good-bye, but rather until our next posting to borrow from an old saying in the Cavalry!

With gratitude to all and strong hopes for the future,

Suzie