Armen thanks colleagues

John G. Falcioni
ASME NEWS

PHILADELPHIA — In a thought-provoking farewell speech, Harry Armen stepped down as ASME president last month here at ASME's summer annual meeting, after his one-year term, expressing his deep gratitude to all the volunteer and staff colleagues who contributed "countless hours" helping to reshape the organization.

Armen leaves after having presided over much of the planning and the beginning of the implementation phase of Continuity and Change, a reorganization of ASME's volunteer and staff alignments.

"The road was difficult," Armen said. "It was difficult to discuss the need to reduce staff, the need to reduce the cost of benefits to our current staff and to our retirees. Yes, the road was uncomfortable and difficult, but not dark and lonely as many lit the road and shared the journey with input and counsel to make us better for our members and our customers.

"Throughout its long and illustrious history, ASME has never been short on talent and passion," Armen added. "We have, however, through the course of years and for no single reason, placed ourselves in a situation that made it difficult to adapt to the changing environment. It waspossible, but not probable that we could be more innovative, that we could be agile, that we could be more relevant to a broader constituency."

Armen said the new organizational structure is "broad and deep, and open and flexible," and better reflects the "reality" of the engineering world.

What's left unfinished, the former president said, is a need for ASME to continue to focus on establishing a healthy portfolio of programs that have the potential to increase the organization's revenue stream so that it can continue "to serve humankind, to serve our members, our customers and our profession."

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