Report from the Nomination Committee
EASM Board Elections 2022 – Report from the Nomination Committee
Election of the Nomination Committee
According to Appendix A of the EASM Statutes, the Nominations Committee was elected by the EASM Members. Due to the restrictions caused by the Covid‐19 pandemic, the election was conducted electronically.
One female (Chris Horbel, German nationality, resident in Norway) and one male (Christos Anagnostopoulos, Greek Nationality, then resident in Cyprus) were elected by the EASM members in the period from 14‐27th of June, 2021. On 27th of October 2021, the EASM Board announced the appointment of Gerco van Dalfsen (Netherlands nationality, resident in the Netherlands), former EASM Secretary General, as the third member of the nomination committee.
Stefan Walzel, EASM Secretary General, completes the nomination committee as non‐voting member.
According to Appendix A to the EASM Charter, the nomination committee shall rotate at least one member annually with a maximum period of office for three years. It was decided that Gerco van Dalfsen’s period will end in 2022, Christos Anagnostopoulos’ period will end in 2023 and Chris Horbel’s period will end in 2024.
In order to ensure a smooth transition of the work of the nomination committee, an initial meeting with members of the previous nominations committee was arranged on 16th of November 2021. Anna Gerke represented the previous committee and shared her experience and the previous committee’s considerations about its work.
Mandate:
According to the EASM Statutes the mandate of the Nominations Committee is the following (Appendix A, 3.1): “The Nominations Committee shall seek and encourage suitable candidates to stand for election to the EASM Board.” In its first working meeting on 19th of January 2022, the Nominations Committee discussed the mandate of the work. The basis for the committee’s work were the intended expressions of interest of six members of the current EASM board (later reduced to five) to re‐run for election, including the current president and treasurer. Consequently, at least three positions need to be filled with new board members.
The committee agreed to focus their work on identifying and encouraging suitable candidates for those positions, that need to be filled with new board members. To strengthen democratic structures and procedures, the committee further agreed to aim for identifying and encouraging more candidates than positions to be filled.
In accordance with Appendix A to the EASM Statutes, the endeavors of the committee in seeking suitable candidates shall be guided by achieving an appropriate geographical and nationality spread as well as gender balance. In addition, the committee aimed to identify candidates with a broad variety of skills and competences, including at least one candidate affiliated with the sport industry.
Process:
After the initial transition meeting with a representative of the previous nomination committee, the first meeting of the nomination committee was held on 19th January 2022. In accordance with Appendix A to the EASM Statutes, in the first meeting, the committee discussed and agreed on their mandate and further procedures. The first steps were to propose a timeline for the EASM Board elections to the EASM Board as well as proposing and discussing a first shortlist of candidates. In addition, Paul Jonson (University of Technology, Sydney) was consulted for clarification of practical issues concerning the digital election process.
The EASM Board agreed on the proposed timeline for the board elections on 10th March 2022. In a first round of candidate proposals ended with more than 20 potential candidates, which was then shortlisted by the committee.
After the call for candidates was released and the timeline for elections as well as the application procedures were published on 18th March 2022, the nomination committee started approaching the shortlisted candidates. The approached candidates were offered the opportunity for an informal orientation meeting with the Nominations Committee. This process was repeated in several rounds based on the expression of interest of the contacted potential candidates and taking the respective diversity of the positive candidates into consideration.
The committee held regular meetings, in which the status quo of expressions of interest and the further procedure for approaching additional candidates were discussed and agreed upon. These meetings were held on 18th February, 4th March, 5th April, 13th April, 25th April, 10th May, 25th May, 31st May and 1st July 2022. In total, the committee approached 14 potential candidates.
Outcome:
The EASM Nominations Committee succeeded in encouraging seven candidates to apply for the EASM Board (in alphabetical order of the family name).
| Name of Candidate | Institution | Nationality | Gender |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kostas Alexandris | Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece | Greek | Male |
| Anna Gerke | Audencia, France | German | Female |
| Thomas Junod | UEFA, Switzerland | Swiss | Male |
| Jacqueline Müller | Loughborough University, UK | German | Female |
| Solveig Straume | Molde University, Norway | Norwegian | Female |
| Tim Ströbel | University of Bayreuth, Germany | German | Male |
| Alex Thurston | Loughborough University, UK | British | Male |
The candidates represent both genders, five nationalities, and six institutional affiliations. One candidate represents a large international sports federation.
All candidates applied for the position of a General Director.
The EASM Nominations Committee encourages all EASM Members to put themselves or other suitable candidates forward for the elections of the EASM Board. The task of the EASM Nominations Committee was to recruit a sufficient number of qualified candidates for the elections. This is explicitly not a recommendation for election. The members of the Nominations Committee have committed themselves to neutrality and have full confidence in the vote of the membership base.
The Report as PDF: Report_EASM_NominationsCommittee
