Speaking at his inauguration ceremony in Brussels on 19 January 2007, IPRA's incoming president Philip Sheppard said: "Given recent events in one of PR's disciplines, that of public affairs, be they negative scandals in the US or positive endeavours such as the European Union's transparency initiative, I have chosen as a theme for 2007 Ethics in PR."
Sheppard is public affairs manager for the European Brands Association - AIM covering issues impacting on EU consumer policy and intellectual property. He started his career with Shell in London and Ireland, finishing as marketing manager Middle East based in Dubai. After a time running his own PR company, he joined Ernst & Young and moved to Switzerland on secondment as a public affairs adviser. He represents European business as a member of the Internet's policy council within ICANN and is a freeman of the City of London. Philip joined IPRA in 1994 and is a former council member for Belgium and board member.
In his speech of welcome to over 150 representatives of the PR world and the Brussels lobbyists community, Sheppard reflected on the forthcoming year: "2007 sees the launch of new plans for IPRA. We will continue to provide significant services and networking opportunities to our members, and to lead effective communications via an upgraded website.
"2007 will see further contributions to intellectual leadership with our Gold Papers joining magazine FrontLine as a web-based freely-accessible product. In 2007 we will add to the stature and popularity of the Golden World Awards for Excellence with new categories that better reflect the needs of markets and sponsors, and an award ceremony as appealing for winners as it is entertaining for attendees. Moreover we will work hard this year on what promises to be the largest ever IPRA World Congress in Beijing in 2008."
Sharing the platform with Kallas and Sheppard were Anthony C Grayling, professor of applied philosophy, Birkbeck College, University of London, who spoke on the subject of "A Question of Ethics" and Erik Jonnaert, chairman of the managing board of the European Centre for Public Affairs.
IPRA is one of the world's only associations for personal membership for senior PR practitioners. IPRA offers its members the opportunity to network with 1000 top-level professionals from over 100 countries in the ever-evolving field of business and social communications. IPRA has 50 years of experience in sharing and promoting professional development, and is the organiser of the Golden World Awards for Excellence - PR's global awards scheme. For more, go to www.ipra.org.
