New Leadership and Strategic Insights: Highlights from the 69th EDC Conference in Berlin.
The core topic of this conference edition was the aftersales business with many keynote speeches and, for the first time, working groups on how European dealers can make their business more efficient. Furthermore, the audience consisting of dealers, national dealer associations, NSC/importers received a business update on the overall situation from Top management of the Volkswagen Group and brands such as Marco Schubert, Martin Sander and Dr. Lars Krause.
However, the highlight for the 23 EDC member associations was the election of a new Executive Committee. The result was clear after a short election. The new EDC President is Michal Ignaszak from Poland. The 48-year-old Volkswagen brand dealer and long-standing member of the board of the Polish dealer association SDVWIA was elected as the new president for the next three years by a simple majority of the EDC members present. In the run-up to the elections, the EDC delegates agreed to expand the EDC Presidium to up to five members in view of the brands to be represented. In further ballots, Peter Picca (Switzerland), Manfred Dalceggio (Italy) and Stefan Hutschinski (Austria) were elected as Vice Presidents.
After ten years in charge, President Dr Matti Pörhö (Finland) was given a standing ovation and named an honorary member of the association as he retired with full honours. He was joined by Steffen Hahn (Germany), who had been Vice President of the EDC for 23 years, and Joaquín Perez Bellido (Spain), who were also given a farewell with full honors. With these gentlemen, the EDC is losing seasoned business personalities and advisors whose achievements and passion for the international automotive industry owe us a great debt of gratitude. With the new Executive Committee, however, we are gaining impulse generators and competent partners who will lead the association through the challenges of our industry into the future.