As the Institute heads towards its 2020 centenary Ian Harwood, has been re-elected by his fellow board directors as AIRAH president.
Harwood joins fellow directors Paul Bannister,Liza Taylor, Nathan Groenhout, Bryon Price, Stefan Jensen, and Chris Flanigan, on the board.
“It is such an honour to be re-elected,” Harwood said. He originally moved into the presidency in January 2017 when the incumbent Ania Hampton, stepped aside due to illness.
“I am proud to serve AIRAH as president, and will continue to work hard to achieve AIRAH’s objectives,” he said.
AIRAH's five primary goals include maintaining its role as Australia's peak membership body in the HVACR industry and as well as being the leading provider of industry-recognised accredited training and education programs for HVACR professionals.
To do this, Harwood said AIRAH needs to be financially stable especially during the leadup to the centenary celebrations.
“There is a lot to do to prepare for this big event but I will be handing over the presidency part-way through the centenary year in 2020, and I would like to hand over the leadership of an association that is stable, has solid grounding to move forward, and is still positioned to lead the industry technically,” Harwood said.
There are several issues confronting the industry right now, he said, including the downward pressure on consultancy fees, offshoring, and the need to continually promote an industry that remains stubbornly below the radar.
“But one of the important issues we need to understand is how the HFC phase-down that began on January 1 this year is going to affect our industry,” Harwood said. “With this in mind, AIRAH is producing some communications tools to help industry understand the issues and their impacts.”