ESBA - The Independant Voice for Small Business

THE EUROPEAN SMALL BUSINESS ALLIANCE ELECTS ITS NEW PRESIDENT

Brussels, May 4^th 2006

Following Brian A. Primes retirement, Tina Sommer was elected President of ESBA at the Alliances Board Meeting in Brussels on May 1st 2006. She had been Honorary Secretary for two years and a Member of the Board since 2002.

Tina is a Director and Chairman for International Affairs for the UK Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), which is a member organisation of ESBA. She previously covered the portfolio of Trade and Industry and has served the organisation as an activist for ten years.

Tinas background is in small businesses, with her entire family running small businesses in various industries and countries. She is a Director of Froben Ltd., a consultancy based in Cardiff, which specialises in Administration Analysis and IT for the Manufacturing, Engineering, Catering, Tourism, Timber and Retail Industries. She has worked in the Baltic States (Estonia and Latvia), United Arab Emirates, South Africa and a number of EU States.

Two years ago, Tina graduated from the University of Glamorgan in Wales, with an Honours Degree in Enterprise. She is committed to improving the environment for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), whilst running her own business and keeping in close touch with others to identify issues and problems.

Following Tinas election, Brian A. Prime was elected Honorary President of ESBA.

Brian has served the SME cause in Europe for over 30 years. He was President of the European Committee for Small & Medium-sized Industries (EUROPMI) from 1991 until 1997 and Chairman of the European Group for Small Businesses and Crafts. He has been President of the European Small Business Alliance since its foundation in 1998. Brian was also a founding member of the Federation of Small Business (FSB), which was established in 1974. It is now the UKs largest SME lobby group with over 195,000 members across 33 regions.

A dinner was held in Brians honour after the successful ESBA Annual Event, SMEs Go International, in Brussels on May 2nd 2006. It was attended by friends and former colleagues, including Dr Ingo Friedrich MEP, Philip Bushill-Matthews MEP; John Bowis MEP, Bruno Wattenberg, Director of the Agence Bruxelloise pour l Entreprise (ABE), and Rob van der Horst, from the EIM Small Business Research & Consultancy.

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Note to the editor: ESBA is a non-party political European group which gathers member organisations from 22 European countries. It is the only organisation in Europe to focus its representation on the needs of fully independent small business organisation (vs. statutory or compulsory membership groups). ESBA currently represents almost 2 million small business entrepreneurs and represents them through targeted EU advocacy activities. ESBA also works towards the development of strong independent lobby and benefits groups in European countries. For more information, please contact:secretariat@esba-europe.org

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Page last updated: 02/02/2007 4:59:22 PM