A new chairman for AFNOR

At the end of AFNOR’s General Assembly of members in Paris on 27 June 2023, the members of the Board of Directors elected Guy Maugis as Chairman of AFNOR. In accordance with AFNOR’s articles of association, this choice was submitted to Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry, who approved it. The industrial and Franco-German background of this former Bosch employee, École Polytechnique graduate and Ponts et Chaussées engineer, is in line with AFNOR’s ambitions to become even more involved in France 2030 and to support the sovereignty that Europe is claiming over the markets of the future, in the wake of the European standardization strategy that Commissioner Thierry Breton set out in February 2022. Guy Maugis takes over from Marc Ventre, who has completed his second term of office. Jérôme Delpech joins the association’s Ethics Committee, a consultative body, replacing François Pelegrin.

Guy Maugis will also have to lead AFNOR towards 2026, the centenary year of the association, which is well established in terms of its influence in standardization circles around the globe. The 2023 edition of the international standardization survey (in French), which measures the volume of voluntary standardization work carried out by each country, both in Europe and worldwide, bears testament to this fact. It shows that France is still in second place on the European scene (CEN-CENELEC) and third place on the international scene (ISO-IEC). Accounting for a quarter of all CEN activities, France ranks behind Germany and well ahead of the UK, and is behind the creation of two new standardization activities, on quality in medical imaging (CEN/TC 470) and unmanned aircraft systems (CEN/TC 471). On a global scale, France is still behind Germany and the United States, and ahead of Japan, the United Kingdom, and China. It leads 79 secretariats, including a new one on natural gas fuelling stations (ISO/TC 340).

Also during the General Assembly, the mem bers of the French Standardization Association (1,500 at 31 December 2022) approved the 2022 annual report. Regarding the scope of the association’s activities (standardization and publishing), the results show positive net income of €2.9 million, for a revenue of €70.2 million, excluding public subsidies (€6 million). These figures can be seen in the 2022 Activity and CSR Report available here. These good results, which are the result of a strategy deployed over several years along with the commitment of our employees, demonstrate the robustness of the Group’s business model.

See the composition of the board of directors

Photo credits: @Arthur Enard