HONG KONG Convention and Exhibition Centre’s Monica Lee-Müller has been elected president of UFI, the international association of exhibition organisers, for 2021.
Lee-Müller joins the association’s Presidential Trio consisting of an incumbent president, an outgoing president and herself as incoming president.
She joins 2020/21 president Anbu Varathan, of the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers’ Association, and Mary Larkin, of Diversified Communications, based in Portland, USA, who is outgoing president.
The decision becomes effective at the end of the 87th UFI Global Congress in November.
Lee-Müller became managing director of Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (Management), the company that operates the 306,000 sqm HKCEC, in 2012 and has been a board member of UFI for 12 years.
Outgoing president Larkin said: “I am thrilled to welcome Monica to the UFI leadership alongside Anbu Varathan. Monica has been a very active member in our industry and has spearheaded many initiatives on diversity and sustainability.
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“She has also been very involved with UFI as a board member and I look forward to working with her as she takes on the role of incoming president. Having worked with Monica, I know she will be a wonderful leader for all aspects of our industry.”
Lee-Müller said: “I am privileged to have served the UFI Board for the past 12 years, during which time I learned and contributed along with so many of the outstanding leaders in the exhibition industry.
“Currently, as we experience the world’s economy being seriously impacted by Covid-19, I am more confident than ever about the significant role of UFI and importance of the exhibitions it supports.
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“It will be an extraordinary honour to join with the UFI leadership in the coming years in moving this remarkable industry forward into a new era. I accept the challenge ahead for it is our global network of industry professionals working together that can meet that challenge.
“I am particularly fortunate to be part of UFI’s Presidential Trio that will inspire diverse perspectives and innovative solutions through the unique efforts of different genders, cultures, professional backgrounds and experiences that UFI represents. I am grateful for the support that I know I will have and I am committed to the responsibility with which I am being entrusted.”
UFI was founded in 1925 as a non-profit, non-partisan international association, and today is the global association for the exhibitions industry, directly representing more than 50,000 exhibition industry professionals in almost 90 countries around the world. UFI operates four regional offices in addition to the headquarters in Paris.
