The biannual WPO meeting held in May at the Messe Dusseldorf in Germany, during interpack, was a special occasion for AIP past president, Pierre Pienaar. He was elected vice-president on the World Packaging Organisation (WPO) Board, responsible for education.
Pierre began his association with WPO in the 1990s when he was president of the Institute of Packaging South Africa.
When he became involved with the AIP in 2002, he began the push for Australia to become a member of WPO. Pienaar felt Australia had much to offer the international packaging world and he knew from previous experience how much there was to gain for members who were part of a global, industrial family and network. With Pienaar’s drive and networking, and with the AIP’s support and enthusiasm, the Institute became a full member at WPO’s 85th board meeting in Istanbul in 2010.
During his term as AIP President (2010-2012), Pienaar played a significant role in ensuring AIP membership on WPO’s education and marketing committees and campaigned for the WPO to take up the challenge of delivering more education and training to developing nations. When Lebanon had to withdraw from hosting the May 2013 board meeting, Pienaar invited WPO and its members to relocate the meeting to Sydney.
This meeting also included the annual World Stars Awards and gala dinner, which put Australia in the spotlight in front of 35 countries. The Sydney WPO meeting was held in conjunction with Australia's packaging trade show, Auspack Plus 2013, and Pienaar was convinced that it would be an excellent opportunity to showcase Australia’s high standards to the world. This proved to be correct. The meeting also allowed the WPO Board and its education committee to take a closer look at the education programs offered by the AIP.
Since then WPO has increasingly called on the AIP’s education committee, led by Pierre Pienaar, to deliver education in developing countries. To date, Pienaar has been instrumental in creating and delivering tailor-made courses in Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria and Singapore. Later this year, he will travel to Nigeria again, to fulfil their request for follow up training, and to Ghana. Vietnam and China have also shown keen interest in AIP’s courses delivered under the WPO banner.
