A New Year Message from the Chief Executive of buildingSMART International
By way of a brief background, I have spent the past 25 years working in construction, engineering, and technology. My career has spanned both government and industry, across multiple sectors, including acting as the owner of infrastructure and complex equipment assets and leading engineering and construction teams. Whilst generally based in the United Kingdom, I’ve had the privilege of working internationally through much of my career, including with the European Union and its member states and living in the United States and Australia. However, I am very well aware that I have much to learn about the details of the work done by our community and the unique attributes of our Chapters, Members, and Rooms. I look forward to meeting many of you over the coming months, but please bear with me as I work my way up the learning curve!
It’s a little soon to set out in any detail a vision for the future of buildingSMART International, but I will share a couple of thoughts on the subject – on which I would welcome feedback and ideas.
Firstly, this is a pivotal moment for our community, with IFC adoption on the rise, increasing industry demand for our current and future products, and a more general growing business focus on digitisation and sustainability. This translates into increased breadth and depth of work for buildingSMART, as we move into new sectors, welcome new countries to the fold, and develop ever more valuable products.
However, with this opportunity comes the need, I believe, for clarity around where we can focus our collective efforts to the best effect. The input to our work – be it direct funding or the time and effort of those who support our work – is a valuable resource that we are responsible for using in the most effective way possible. Equally, we must stay relevant to and valued by the organisations we represent and support, both in the near term and when we look further ahead to the next generations of technologies and products.
One of my early priorities will be to deliver a Strategic Roadmap to summarise in one place the key standards and services that we need to deliver and in what sequence and timeframes. Ensuring that this Roadmap meets the needs of our membership and, in turn, drives the prioritisation of our collective efforts will be vital to our success over the coming years. This Strategic Roadmap will complement and bring context to our Technical Roadmap and other workstream plans, on which I look forward to continued strong progress over the coming months. I will share more on this in due course, and indeed will be seeking input and guidance from across the community as we develop this.
Finally, I want to recognize two individuals who have come before me. Richard Petrie has left a remarkable legacy for us all in the form of this community, its many achievements over the years, and the foundations for our continued success into the future and the opportunities ahead of us are a testament to his work and vision. Additionally, I would like to thank Ian Howell for his sterling service in guiding buildingSMART International through these difficult past months and for the personal support he has provided me more recently. We are indebted to them both.