ASME's 122nd president takes office

Emily M. Smith
ASME NEWS

ATLANTA — Reginald I. Vachon began his term as the 122nd president of ASME last month during the Society's Summer Annual Meeting.

In a speech during the President's Dinner here, he recounted ASME's many achievements over its soon-to-be 125-year history and outlined several goals for ensuring a future.

"Serving a wider global customer base is the key to longevity," Vachon explained to the audience of ASME dignitaries, family members and guests. "The president's external role is to exert and project the presence of the members and leadership of ASME globally," he said.

Reginald I. Vachon

 

 

 

Vachon is president of VNA Systems Inc., an Atlanta-based company that develops artificial intelligence and machine-vision devices for medical diagnostics. An active ASME member for 44 years, he holds the highest grade of membership, Honorary Member.

As president of ASME, Vachon said, he has three internal leadership roles: creating a compelling vision and mission tied to the needs of members, customers and stakeholders; aligning the structure of systems, processes and people to achieve ASME's mission and vision; and empowering the engineering community by creating an environment that unleashes the talent, ingenuity, intelligence and creativity of ASME's members and staff.

Vachon attributed ASME's longevity to its chief assets: the Society's financial strength; its participation in the profession worldwide, which includes relationships with 63 peer societies in countries around the world and members in 122 countries; and what he said was "its recognized world leadership and unquestioned integrity."

He outlined several goals for ASME: to become market-focused to serve members and the many potential customers who are also potential members, and to serve as a platform for global discussion of topics of common interest to engineers and the public.

In working toward those goals, Vachon said that ASME must constantly address several issues. They include: assessing how globalization of the economy and engineering practices are shaping ASME programs and services; and how the trend toward the continuous reinvention of organizations to meet new challenges is helping ASME create an open, fluid and responsive culture.

Already, ASME has begun work on priorities that were identified by recent task forces and teams, in addition to current assessments and organizational reviews. Those priorities include becoming more involved in joint efforts; multidisciplinary areas such as nanotechnology, bioengineering, robotics, MEMS, intelligent transportation systems, homeland security and sustainability; and creating prototype services and programs as cost-effective ways to probe into the future.

Because industry will continue to be a priority, the role of the Industry Advisory Board and other initiatives that focus on engineering management will be increased. ASME will create new resources and support for engineering management careers for individuals.

Young mechanical engineers will find a professional home with ASME that will be built on information provided from the Young Engineers Task Force and ongoing communications efforts.

Vachon said several innovations are addressing ASME's future direction. "Those include the adoption of a balanced scorecard tool to view the Society from four perspectives — financial, customers, internal operations and learning or growth," he said. As part of the balanced scorecard approach, he explained, three tasks are under way: the development of a map to display ASME's overall strategy in the future, the development of metrics and measures, and the development of initiatives and actions.

A report will be presented to the Board of Governors during November.

For Vachon's complete speech, click here.

 

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