EHPA expands board to 15 members

BELGIUM: To better represent its growing membership, the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) has increased its management board from eight to 15.

At the extraordinary general assembly last month, two board members – Eric Delforge of Mayekawa and Wim Boydens of Belgian company Boydens engineering – stepped down and nine new members were elected.

The new members are:
Enrique Vilamitjana, MD, Panasonic AC & Heating Europe
Małgorzata Smuczyńska, business unit manager, NIBE-BIAWAR
Rolf Iver Hagemoen, general manager of the Norwegian Heat Pump Association, Norsk Varmepumpeforening
Luc de Torquat, public affairs deputy director, Atlantic Group
Marek Miara, heat pump coordinator, Fraunhofer Institute
Florent Jourde, EDF
Barbara Priesching, global business unit manager heat pumps & renewables, Vaillant
Thomas Finke, vice president residential heat pump product group, Bosch Thermotechnology
Caroline Haglund Stignor, strategic research leader for flexible and robust energy systems at RISE, and assistant manager of the IEA Heat Pump Centre.

Panasonic’s new member Enrique Vilamitjana told the Cooling Post that he would be helping to raise awareness and promote the use of heat pump technologies. “At Panasonic, we pride ourselves on working towards the decarbonisation of heating and I’m sure that working with the EHPA we can really make a difference,” he said.

The EHPA board is completed by existing members Martin Forsén of NIBE, Dina Köpke (treasurer) of Emerson Climate Technologies, Patrick Crombez of Daikin, Johannes Brugmann of Stiebel Eltron, Jussi Hirvonen of the Finnish heat pump association SULPU, and Thomas Fleckl of the Austrian Institute of Technology.

The EHPA represents the majority of the European heat pump industry. Its members comprise heat pump and component manufacturers, research institutes, universities, testing labs and energy agencies. Membership is now approaching 140 members.