Keith Pearson, SA, is new WPO president

Written by Peter Roessel

Monday, 17 April 2006 00:00

“A recognition of Africa” At the World Packaging Organisation’s board meeting held in Prague in mid-October, a new president was elected to succeed Dr Alexis Stassinopoulos of Greece. Presidents serve for three years and Dr Stassinopoulos’s term ends in April 2006. President elect is South Africa’s Keith Pearson, immediate past national chairman of the Institute of Packaging (SA). This is the first time that a WPO president has come from the African continent. Keith Pearson has thorough experience in packaging, having worked for some 30 years in various management positions for the Kohler group, a leading packaging conglomerate in South Africa (and recently acquired by Nampak). For the past few years he has been working as a consultant and now feels that he has the time to commit himself to WPO. This is not the first time he has been offered the presidency. “I look forward to this with high hopes. I was offered the presidency some years ago, but I did not feel that I had the time to devote to it. Furthermore, I was uncertain how much support I had within the organisation. Therefore, I declined,” says Mr Pearson. “However, now I feel that I have both the time and the support, and therefore the decision was an easy one to take. I am the first from the African continent to be offered this position, and I view this as a recognition of Africa.” Strong commitment to educational matters Mr Pearson is strongly committed to educational matters, and to helping spread knowledge of packaging to the third world. In line with this, he has served as chairman of the Institute of Packaging (SA)’s education board in South Africa, and has been chairman of the education committee in WPO. “Currently we have 800 students studying packaging technology in South Africa, and there are enormous needs to improve knowledge in this field around the world. I want to maximise the global participation in WPO, and we should be able to acquire new member states. Packaging plays an important part when it comes to reducing starvation in the world. This becomes clear as it is said as much as 30 to 50 per cent of all food is damaged during transport in the developing countries. Given this fact we within WPO recognise the need to spread packaging knowledge. A typical way for us to do this is through packaging workshops, which in general take four days,” says Mr Pearson. Ghana as a very good example As an example of a successful effort, Mr Pearson mentions a project undertaken by WPO together with sponsors in Ghana in 2003. “This was fantastic, it shows that there is great need to help organise and structure business in developing countries. The work in Ghana resulted in the establishment of the country’s own Institute of Packaging as well as a packaging fair held last year,” says Mr Pearson. Mr Pearson will officially become president of the WPO at the meeting to be held in Beijing, China, in April 2006, but has already started working beside Dr Stassinopoulos, for instance, in awarding the special presidential WorldStar award. Undoubtedly, educational matters in the WPO will be further strengthened during Mr Pearson’s presidency.

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 17 September 2008 19:03 )