New President of Danish Thai Chamber of Commerce

Leo Alexandersen was elected new President of the Danish-Thai Chamber of Commerce at the Annual General Meeting of the Chamber Thursday evening, March 3, 2005.
      Mr. Alexandersen replaces President Tom Sorensen who after five years heading the Chamber had decided not to seek reelection. The new Board of Governors decided for Leo Alexandersen to be their new President after a quick three minute meeting following the Annual General Meeting.
      Apart from Leo Alexandersen, the meeting elected Tommy Hansen, Viking and Robert Kronberg, C&C Travel, as new members of the board, while Jorgen Ib Hedes, Sun Paratech was reelected.
      The Annual General Meeting took as usual place at the Royal Danish Embassy, where Ambassador Ulrik Helweg-Larsen and Christina had opened their beautiful house and garden for the event and the Ambassador was elected Chairman of the meeting.
      In his report from the past year of events, out going President Tom Sorensen noted among several other achievements especially the establishing of the Chambers own administration as “something we should probably have done years ago.” The new administration is now headed by Executive Director Michael Nilsson and the result had quickly shown in several new members joining the Chamber.
      “In 1999 the Chamber had 84 members. Next year we had 94, next year again 98, then 103, then 114 – and today we are 136 members,” Tom Sorensen noted.
      Going through the finances of the Chamber, treasurer Soren Presmann added, however, that history had shown that when renewal of memberships are due, some members tend to drop out, so for the coming year the budget was built on 80 corporate memberships and 35 individual memberships.
      This would give a net profit of 229,350 Baht – if the members would approve a proposal of an increase in membership fees to be decided on later in the meeting. Asked what kind of profit could be expected if the AGM did not approve of the increase in membership fees, Soren Presmann could not beat fellow board member Michel Deleuran whose fast calculation reached the result of “some eleven thousand baht” in net profit.
      Hans Ulrich Hansen, Jebsen & Jessen asked if the Board had a considered establishing a ceiling of what equity was needed for the Chamber – given that Chamber had today total assets of 1,4 million of which 1,1 million was cash in the bank. He was, however, reproached by Jorgen Ib Hedes who pointed out how important it had been during the past years turbulence leading to the separation of the Danish Chamber’s administration from the Swedish and Norwegian Chambers that the Danish Chamber had a strong financial position, and Hans Ulrich Hansen did not pursue his point any further.
      At the end of the Annual General Meeting, Jorgen Ib Hedes took the stand to thank Tom Sorensen for his dedication during the years at the helm.
      “Cool, calm and collected,” was among the keywords he attached to Tom Sorensen. Jorgen Ib Hedes added that Tom Sorensen could also be “infuriatingly self confident” giving as an example how Tom Sorensen in his first meeting as President had announced that in the future board meetings would without exception take place every third Thursday of the months – come Hell or high waters. The meetings would start at 16.30 sharp, he had added, and being late would not be accepted. Period.
      Having given Tom Sorensen a few more kind jabs, Jorgen Ib Hedes left the podium to Tom who in reply insisted that it was the best speech he had ever heard.
      After the Annual General Meeting most members joined an excellent dinner on the lawn of the embassy residence prepared by Admiral Pub & Restaurant and the evening ended around ten o’clock.

About Gregers Møller

Editor-in-Chief • ScandAsia Publishing Co., Ltd. • Bangkok, Thailand

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