During the annual 82. UFI Congress in Milan, Kai Hattendorf took over the position of UFI’s new Managing Director. Former Vice President, Digital Business Entertainment at Messe Frankfurt, joined UFI this autumn in order to continue the work of Paul Woodward who left UFI for private reasons. Hattendorf had been selected from a wide international field of candidates in a process led by UFI President Andrés Lopez-Valderrama and his Executive Committee in Istanbul in June 2014. The process was supported by the international executive search company, Heidrick Struggles. Senior executives from over 15 countries around the world were considered for the position, which involves daily management of all UFI activities and responsibility for the teams working in its offices in Paris, Hong Kong and Sharjah. Following the announcement to UFI’s Board of Directors at its Istanbul meeting, Lopez-Valderrama commented: “I am personally very pleased with the quality of candidates we saw, and in particular that we have been able to recruit a senior executive of Kai’s calibre to lead UFI. His experience at one of the world’s leading exhibition companies and as a seasoned communications professional will be critical in leading UFI on to address the challenges and opportunities our industry faces.” Hattendorf said: “I’m looking forward to joining UFI later this year and to continue the great work Paul and the dedicated team have done in the past years. Change in the exhibition industry is accelerating. As the global voice of our industry, UFI is in a unique position to support its members all around the world in addressing these changes.” Hattendorf joined UFI from Messe Frankfurt Group where he had held various senior executive positions over the past years including overseeing trade shows, digital business, communications and marketing. His previous career includes leadership positions in marketing/strategic communications as well as strategy and product development in the ITC and media industry for Deutsche Telekom Group, dpa (the German Presse Agency) and a start-up. A journalist by education, Hattendorf has reported internationally and worked for the WDR and Radio Bremen broadcasters in Germany, the BBC in the UK, and the Voice of America. He holds a Masters degree from American University, Washington, DC. He also studied in Dortmund and Edinburgh. Source: UFI -the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, www.ufi.org