ECA Foundation announces Changes on its Board

After the untimely death of its chairman Daniel Scheidegger in September 2011, Richard M. Bonner will now succeed as the Foundation's Chairman of the Advisory Board.

Mr Scheidegger had become Chairman of the ECA Foundation Advisory Board in October 2005. "I very much appreciated working with Daniel, and I'm thus honoured to follow him as Chairman," Mr Bonner said. "During his leadership he created the basis for further growth and advanced the organisation significantly, and I will concentrate on continuing this development." During Mr Scheidegger's time as Chairman the Foundation established the two working groups European QP Association and Rapid Microbiological Methods Group.

Mr Bonner who is a Consultant to the Pharmaceutical Industry and a Qualified Person in Europe, has been member of the Advisory Board since several years and was appointed as Director Regulatory Affairs in 2007 and Vice Chairman in 2010. As a former Senior Quality Adviser for Eli Lilly and Company in the UK, he has also been focusing on quality assurance issues for the ECA.

The Foundation also appointed Dr Afshin Hosseiny as new member of the Advisory Board. The former Director of Quality Assurance for the Global Supply Network of GlaxoSmithKline is today Managing Director of Tabriz Consulting Ltd., providing consultancy services to the companies within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain. Dr Hosseiny is a QP via permanent provision with detailed working knowledge of European and FDA regulatory requirements with over 25 years of experience in auditing pharmaceutical manufacturing sites across Europe and USA, as well as in the preparation for and fronting of EU and FDA regulatory inspections. He was further actively involved in the development of ISO 15378 (packaging components) and PS900, 2011 (Packaging standards for pharmaceutical products). "I feel flattered by the Foundation's offer," Dr Hosseiny commented the invitation. "It is my pleasure to join the board and bring in my background."

"We're very happy Afshin accepted our invitation to join. It is exactly this extensive experience we need to further advance the Foundation and to pick up new topics," Mr Bonner noted. Dr Hosseiny will be heading a new interest group concentrating on Good Distribution Practice and Anti-Counterfeiting.