Standardization News

Spring this year marked a changing of the seasons in the leadership of ASTM International, as we transitioned from the long and successful tenure of Kathie Morgan to what I plan to make an equally successful run leading the organization. It truly is a transition from success to success, there’s no need to burn the fields and start anew. 

That’s a fantastic position from which to start, but it makes it hard to answer the ever-present question: “What’s your vision for the organization for the next five years?” Or maybe not. When I look at why I decided to seek the leadership role after being a 26-year member of the organization and a Board member, it speaks to the future I envision here. ASTM’s position as a recognized leader in global standards development has been, and will continue to be, built on the strength of its membership; our rigorous commitment to an open, diverse, and inclusive voluntary consensus process; our steadfast pursuit of our mission; and the processes, systems, tools, and staff that we deliver to aid our members in building new standards and standards-adjacent content.

But those things didn’t build themselves, nor can they be taken for granted. To remain a leader, we need to consciously focus on improving all of those areas while finding new technical fields, nascent industries, developing markets, and growing economies. In doing so, our ability to convene experts, regulators, and consumers to raise the floor through pre-competitive standardization helps them compete and really makes our world work better.

We have to be willing to take risks, as these won’t all play out or pay off. But we’ll manage that risk by remaining focused on our mission, trimming those things that ultimately might  be interesting but better left for others to take up, or carry on.

Most importantly, we’re going to always remember that ASTM is a member-based organization, and our main mission is driven by providing member value. There is a lot of work we can do to continue to improve our member experience, to help our technical committees seek out, engage, and grow their relevance through new members – through student chapters, academic outreach, our emerging professionals, and global cooperation programs. And, to support and amplify the diligent work of our technical committees through a first-class staff team.

That brings me back to Spring and new beginnings. Over the past few weeks I’ve seen this at work firsthand. We just welcomed an outstanding class of 15 new summer interns, across nearly every department in ASTM. I’m astounded at the quality of these individuals – as diverse and skilled group of students you could hope for, from universities near and far. More than their diversity, I’m struck by their level of accomplishment – one who’s built robotic arms that can play chess, another that speaks six languages, another that…I could go on. I’m excited for the knowledge, the varied experiences, and the new perspectives that this class of interns will bring to energize our already stellar staff.

During the same week, our Board Nominating Committee also met to select the candidates for the next class of directors. The Nominating Committee is as impressive as the directors they’ve selected. And as dedicated. One traveled 7,400 miles to return from a trip to China to attend the half-day meeting. I can’t reveal who the new directors will be yet, so stay tuned. All I can say is that like our interns, it’s a powerful class with experience across different industries, professions, and many, many ASTM technical and governance committees.

My vision is to build on the strong foundation of success achieved over the last 125 years and empower our members and staff to take advantage of the significant opportunities ahead so that we continue to elevate ASTM’s global impact across all the industries and stakeholders that we serve. ■

Andrew G. Kireta, Jr.
President, ASTM International