00:07We are thrilled to welcome Michael Hayek. Hi. Hello. You are the Vice President, Finance and Treasurer of SIGRE. You
00:16have served SIGRE as US National Committee President from 2011 to 2016 and then served at the Steering Committee and
00:27Administrative Council since 2016.
00:30You now sell these bodies as a SIGRE treasurer. So you have witnessed the evolution of SIGRE from different perspectives.
00:39What were the most important changes for SIGRE in the last years and especially in the last couple of years
00:46during COVID?
00:49That's a great question. Everyone wants to know how we got through COVID. But we started in 2017 with a
00:57marketing campaign which created a digital platform. And it's the digital platform that kept us relevant when everyone's in their
01:06basements with COVID.
01:07So SIGRE survived and is relevant. And we also had our 100th year anniversary in the virtual centennial session, which
01:17was an extraordinary event virtual across the world. But it was because of our digital platform.
01:23How did you manage during this session the financial loss? What actions have been put forward to maintain financial stability
01:32during this world war crisis?
01:35Treasurers before me created a cash reserves in case we did not have a Paris session. So we were ready
01:44for that. And we're a little low right now. But the 2022 Paris session is a record event.
01:54So our cash reserves are going to be replenished. And I'm very happy about that as treasurer.
02:00The number of new SIGRE members is increasing more and more over the world. What were the strategic decisions taken
02:08by SIGRE to grow membership through the pandemics and in the future, of course?
02:14Well, certainly technical relevance in the energy transition is very important. But the digital platform enabled us to open up
02:23a gateway.
02:24And that gateway allows anyone from a smartphone to join SIGRE from anywhere in the world through their national committee.
02:33So that allowed us to grow. That gateway alone just started and we got nearly a thousand members through that.
02:42So we're growing very quickly.
02:44Right now, only a third of the national committees are on and we're going to get them aboard before the
02:49end of the session.
02:50We understand that you are convening a SIGRE task force to update the strategic plan. What will be SIGRE? What
02:59will become in the decade coming and beyond, of course?
03:04Yeah, the strategic plan. Actually, we had one since 2018, but we're updating it. The energy transition is important. Our
03:13technical foundation is important and we need to be very relevant.
03:17We can't be three years behind. We actually need to be three years ahead. And that is very extraordinary for
03:24our technical council. From a membership perspective, providing services, providing publications, providing articles is very important in that technical foundation.
03:34But the most important thing that we've did to enable us to scale is our digital platform because the digital
03:43platform only costs X. And if we have more members, it's less X per member. So that is allowing us
03:51to scale very substantially.
03:54So I'm pretty pleased on what our team has done and what the administrative council has enabled for us.
04:01Thank you for coming by today and have a great session.
04:05My pleasure.
04:06Take care.
