Gernot Wimmer takes helm as EFP president as general assembly elects new officers and welcomes new representatives

The EFP’s annual general assembly, held in Santiago de Compostela (Spain), saw Juan Blanco hand over the baton as president of the federation to Gernot Wimmer.

Prof Wimmer, who will be president until the next general assembly (to be held in Vienna on March 17, 2018), said his first priority would be “to take advantage of the great legacy of my predecessors, notably Søren Jepsen and Juan Blanco, to reinforce the international leadership of the EFP as the global benchmark in periodontal science and practice.”

In addition, he added, he would seek to “put perio high on the agenda”, conveying a clear message to dental practitioners, health professionals, and public authorities that gum health can help prevent and control systemic diseases in individuals and that it represents a “cost-effective way for governments to improve our general health, public health, and the well-being of citizens.”

Another priority would be to help EFP-affiliated national societies to raise awareness of gum disease and disseminate relevant scientific knowledge in their own countries, he said.

As Gernot Wimmer took over as EFP president, Anton Sculean became president-elect and Xavier Struillou (France) was voted onto the executive committee as a new elected member.

The assembly elected Philip Preshaw (UK) to serve as the new chair of the undergraduate education committee for the next three years, replacing Korkud Demirel (Turkey). Moshe Goldstein (Israel) was elected for a further three-year term as chair of the postgraduate education committee.

The assembly also saw the new junior officers, selected by the executive committee last October, take their posts. They are: Moritz Kebschull (Germany), Workshop committee; Rok Gaspersic (Slovenia), undergraduate education committee; Peter Harrison (Ireland), postgraduate education committee; Kristina Bertl (Austria), scientific affairs committee; Antonio Liñares (Spain), communications committee.

Full details of the members of the executive committee and other committees can be found on the EFP website: www.efp.org/aboutefp/committee.

The general assembly welcomed new representatives from the national societies of Germany (Christof Dörfer), Hungary (Balint Molnar), Spain (Adrián Guerrero), Sweden (Ann-Marie Roos Jansaker and Andreas Stavropoulous), Switzerland (Patrick Gugerli), the United Kingdom (Ian Needleman), Russia (Liudmila Orekhova), and Ukraine (Yulia Chumakova).

Looking back on his year in office, Prof Blanco said: “We have undertaken a lot of important tasks during this last year, but I would like to highlight in particular the clear improvement in communication, the impact of the European Day of Periodontology, and our growing relationships with other scientific and health organisations.”

An interview with Juan Blanco reflecting on his time as president has been published on the EFP website.

See also: EFP general assembly in Santiago approves new strategic plan