The pursuit of harmony

You’re a lawyer by profession. How did you get into the association world?

I started my career at a large law firm, working on environmental law, zoning law and town planning. Eventually, I took a step back because I wanted to be there for my kids as they were growing up. I started working for the Flemish energy regulator, which was a perfect job because it allowed me to make time for my family while growing professionally whereas providing met the intellectual challenges I need. We had just had the liberalisation of the energy markets in Europe, so there was a lot going on. At that point I was a member representative of my current association, AIB. I started going to working groups and immediately liked the work of associations, the constructive atmosphere, and the fact that AIB was focused on trying to harmonise a European system, bottom up, through the efforts of all the national members. Striving for that consensus, that harmonisation, really spoke to me, and because I was the only lawyer amongst the member representatives, they discovered that I could be useful! So, I reduced my hours with the regulator and started advising my current association.

And how did you end up as secretary general of AIB?

Well I did some additional training and became one of the first cohorts on the Solvay Association Management MBA. That was a great experience. I’d had an expert position for so long, it was like coming out of a tunnel! Suddenly the whole world of associations and management opened up to me. At this time, I was very involved in the organisational change process at AIB. The association had grown quite rapidly, and we really had to step up our game and professionalize. So, when the former AIB secretary general retired in 2020 that experience, along with the MBA, gave me the confidence to apply for the job. And, luckily, I got it! And for the first time, I was a manager instead of a lawyer.

Having an MBA puts you firmly in the ‘professional’ association manager bracket, but you also have the subject expertise that secretaries general traditionally had…

Yeah, I guess my profile is quite complete in that way! I knew the association very well. I knew the energy world quite well. I knew the contents of what my association was working on very, very well. But now it was a question of stepping up my game and managing the association!

And right at the start of a pandemic…

Yes, I had to do it all online! We didn’t have our head office in Brussels then. That was very challenging! We had just finished the organisational change process, so not only was there a new secretary general for the first time in 20 years, but also the job of implementing the new association model that had been agreed by the members.

So how big is your staff now?

We have a team of six and not all working from our headquarters in Belgium. There's two people working from Czech Republic, one person working from Germany. We will probably grow further in the coming years because the workload is growing consistently. We are also seeing a shift, and you will hear this from other association executives, where members really want to contribute to the core tasks of the association. However, the more supporting tasks are really a matter for the secretariat. So, you really need a secretariat who can support the members in their work to jointly move forward with the association.

Tell me a bit more about the internal changes you went through…

We are active in energy certification, but for the first 20 years of the association it was purely to do with electricity. With the change in European legislation, gas came into play, and we needed to make our association ready to accommodate gas members. We needed to set up decision structures that allowed us to move forward in a more agile way than we did before. The biggest change was to the governance model. In the past, decisions were taken by the general meeting, consisting of all members. We changed this so the executive board became the de facto management organ. The general meeting still makes the big decisions around strategy and finance.

“One of the biggest tasks, as an association leader, is to maintain the trust of your members…

What is the dynamic between your association and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol?

What the Greenhouse Gas Protocol does internationally is to a large extent similar as we are doing in Europe with the guarantees of origin. And so, we're in very close dialogue and cooperation with the WRI, which is the organisation that manages the protocol, because we must ensure that there is no clash or no conflict between the standard they operate and the European standard for guarantees of origin. So, it's a matter of dialogue and continuous harmonisation. It’s about fine-tuning systems and making sure that we really phase out the last instances of potential double counting that may occur.

How has the war in Ukraine affected the work of your association?

Well, a lot more attention has been focused on the production of renewable energy within Europe, because suddenly there was a realisation of how dependent we are on Russian fossil gas. So, in this respect, there was a lot more attention on our work within the renewable energy sector. And secondly what we see is a very big drive from the Ukrainians to prepare for after the war. So, they're setting up their legislation, setting up their systems to be ready for the deployment of renewable energy production, and working with us. The issuing body of Ukraine will be joining AIB pretty soon.

Apart from Covid-19, what other significant challenges have you faced in the last three years?

We had to come up with a very strong plan for the next five years. I'm a very strong believer in strategy. An association really needs to know where it's heading, because if you have that you can always set course and decision making is so much easier. So, one of the first things we did was set out a solid vision for our association to where we want to start to stand in 2025. Together obviously with the members and with the board. It's always a joint effort, with the secretariat steering but not really deciding. There’s a saying: ‘you have to have all the noses pointing in the same direction’. And this is one of the biggest tasks, as an association leader, to make sure that you can do that and maintain the trust of your members. And that you provide value for money.

There’s often tension between volunteers and a new executive that wants to streamline things, to make things more efficient, and get rid of some of the more laborious decision-making processes. Do you think these tensions are going to increase as association leadership becomes more professional in Europe?

This could be the case. Professionalisation is a change process and change always invokes resistance, because members are usually happy with how things have always been. It's so important to keep all the members on board. For instance, in our change process, there was a certain point, a clash where we really were on the wrong track. But this turned out to be a very good starting point for the new chapter. We had a few members joining forces and setting out some conditions that they thought were the ground rules for moving forward and it turned out to be a very good starting point to move forward. Because it's an association you must make sure all are heard and that you take all interests into account. If there's a strong secretary general who really wants to impose their views or their way of working, I don't think that will work per se. You need to do this in discussion with your members, in dialogue and always make sure that you have them on board.

Explainer: what does AIB do?

The Association of Issuing Bodies guarantees the origin of energy you consume. It runs a digital certification programme that decouples the physical flow of energy through the grid from its attributes (renewable or fossil fuel). For example, a company built next to a coal plant and not investing in their own solar devices, would physically use electricity from fossil fuels because of its location, but the plant can still purchase green energy at the point of production using certificates, called Guarantees of Origin. AIB also runs a quality assurance mechanism to ensure there is no double counting in the system, which prevents green washing. There is now also certification for gas, hydrogen and biomethane. Since 2001, the basis of the system is laid down the EU’s Renewable Energy Directives. AIB’s 35 members are the local authorities appointed by their national governments to administer these systems of guarantees of origin.

Photo by Christian Dubovan on Unsplash

What would you say are the key attributes of an association leader?

Listening is very important. Sensing the mood, knowing when something's wrong. A lot of empathy is needed. And communication skills are vital, you must be able to translate ideas and communicate them in a very understandable way. Not everyone I work with speaks English at home. I also attach a lot of importance to association culture. We always try to make people feel it at home. Working as a member representative for an association usually means working outside office hours, outside your day job. So that's why we always strive to have fun at the meetings and to meet at nice places to accommodate all the hard work that needs to be done.

Have you discovered anything about yourself as a leader that was revealing?

Well, I discovered that the transition to leader was much more pleasant than I expected! I had so much trouble in deciding whether to run for this position. And now I love my job so much. It's the first time in my career that I really feel like I have my dream job. Obviously, it’s very time consuming, but it's no problem because the job is so diverse, so much fun, so interesting. And the beauty of my job is I not only make a difference in the energy transition, but I bring people together to work towards that common purpose. Bringing people together is something that motivates me and makes me happy. I have discovered also how much I liked mentoring. There are young professionals who I have discovered think of me as a role model, which I didn't expect! But I really like talking to them because I recognise the insecurities you have as a young, female professional, wanting to start a family, not knowing whether you will be able to balance it with a career. And I really like providing hope and energy and a path to young professionals to be able to grow.

Finally, what do you do to unwind?

I have been meditating for the last five years and it has truly changed my life. I wish I had known about meditation ten or 15 years ago. I think it should be taught at school as a basic skill, because it allows you to stay grounded and not be overwhelmed too easily. I also like travelling with friends and family. And another thing that is important to me is having family meals. We’ve always put a lot of importance on having joint family meals with my husband and three children.

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