Lloyd’s Register (LR) chief executive Nick Brown has been named as the new chair of the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS).
Brown will take over from ClassNK chairman Koichi Fujiwara, who has held the position for the past year.
Brown’s appointment breaks with the tradition of appointing the IACS chair based on an annual rotation among its 12 members.
Under a recent reform of the IACS constitution, Brown was voted in by members. The position will also run from July 2021 until December 2023, rather than the previous 12-month period.
In addition, China Classification Society’s Li Zhiyuan has been appointed as chair of the IACS General Policy Group for a three-year period.
Brown, who was also promoted to chief executive of LR at the start of this year, credited ClassNK’s Fujiwara for the IACS reforms.
“The current council chair, Koichi Fujiwara of ClassNK, has successfully delivered far-reaching change to the governance of IACS while simultaneously ensuring that IACS remained fully responsive to industry needs during the Covid-19 pandemic,” Brown said.
Brown has been supportive of moves to modernise classification rules in line with developments in digital technology. He added that he is hoping to bring further modernisation during his tenure as IACS chair.
“I look forward to building on his achievements by ensuring IACS continues to play its role in supporting an industry experiencing times of rapid change and delivering responsive advice to the technical and regulatory challenges posed by decarbonisation and digitisation,” he said.
