Page 8 - Linkline Spring 2017

Young and Diverse Membership Key to CILT Growth Says New International President
Following his recent address to Irish members, Kevin Byrne, the new International President, outlined his plans to grow CILT’s membership.
The New Year has brought with it a new era for The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), as Lieutenant Colonel (Ret) Kevin Byrne took over from Paul Brooks as CILT International President.
The leading professional body for logistics and transport specialists the world over CILT International has over 35,000 members in more than 100 countries worldwide. The Institute seeks to promote excellence and understanding through education, support of industry professionals and provision of continuous career development opportunities.
Kevin Byrne is a CILT veteran, having joined the then CIT in Ireland in 1992 and later becoming a chartered fellow. Having served on the council for many years, he was elected CILT Ireland President in 2003, later becoming CILT International Vice-President in 2010.
Building on the great work done by his predecessors Paul Brooks and Dr Dorothy Chan, Kevin’s focus will be on growing the organisation, increasing and retaining membership, political influence, and expanding into new territories. Adopting the motto “The future is ours”, Kevin is focused on developing new, younger members.
“We have a fantastic pool of young professionals across the world. My idea in the short-term is to promote membership growth but also to retain membership where we can. A problem we have in some aspects is that we get lots of people looking to join but we also get people who move out and retire on the top end. So, in some cases we're not as prolific as we could be in terms of consolidating our membership and growing our membership services.”
“When young people look at organisations they want to join, first and foremost they should consider what's in it for them in terms of membership or educational services they can benefit from. I hope CILT will be a partner for them when they commence a job in whatever aspect of transport and logistics they choose. If you get students involved at an early stage, when they get a job and become established, they tend to rejoin the body. That is true not just of Ireland but of many of the countries in CILT International.”
The new CILT International President is an experienced educator, having taught part-time on the BSc and MSc programmes in Aviation Management in Dublin City University and on similar courses in Coventry University in the UK. Education, in particular
8 The Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport
KEVIN BYRNE