FIDIC has appointed Thanos Totsikas as the general manager of its new certification and professional development services company, FIDIC Credentialing Ltd (FCL). This new key role will oversee the running of the new FIDIC Credentialing company which has been established to set certification standards, develop, and administer examinations and award certification and recertifications to individuals who have met the standards for learning and professional development programmes.

FCL, due to be launched in March 2021, will offer certification and professional development services to a range of professionals working in the global infrastructure industry and is set to herald a new era for credentialing for the consulting engineering, construction and infrastructure sector, ensuring that evaluation and certification programmes are available all year round to industry professionals.

Reporting to the FIDIC chief executive officer and with accountability to the FCL management board and associated governance committees, as general manager of FCL Totsikas will oversee and be responsible for all key areas of the credentialing company’s operations including governance, programme delivery, accreditation standards and business development. He will also be responsible for implementation of certification policies, standards and procedures for the credentialing process, including the various working committees and provision of leadership and direction for the FCL team.

Greek national Totsikas who is based in Athens and speaks English, French and German, is a project management professional with extensive experience in business administration, quality management, business development and process improvement in the IT, vocational training, assessment and certification industry nationally and internationally. He has an MSc in Management, Technology, Quality from the Open University of Cyprus, a postgraduate certificate in Business Administration from Athens University of Economics and Business and a BSc in Economics from the University of Piraeus.

Speaking on his arrival as general manager of FIDIC Credentialing Ltd, Totsikas said: “I’m very excited to take on this new role at an exciting time for FIDIC in its development as we prepare to launch FIDIC Credentialing which has the opportunity to open up a new era in accreditation and certification for the construction and infrastructure sector. I can’t wait to get to work with the team here and to apply my experience and knowledge of certification to help get FCL off to the best possible start.”

FIDIC chief executive, Dr Nelson Ogunshakin OBE, commented: “I am delighted to welcome Thanos Totsikas as the general manager of FIDIC Credentialing Ltd. FCL will indeed herald a new era for certification and professional development services for the consulting engineering, construction and infrastructure sector and help drive improvement in project delivery using FIDIC systems and contracts. I am looking forward to Thanos’s input into the launch of FCL and its global roll out over the coming months. He has wide-ranging and relevant experience in international accreditation and certification and I am delighted to have him as such a key part of the FCL team.”