Kai Hattendorf. Photo Credit: UFI
Kai Hattendorf, CEO of UFI, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, will leave his post at the end of 2024. Hattendorf has led the organization since 2015.
UFI, which was founded in 1925 in Milan, is about to begin a year of special programs and activities in honor of the association's centennial. That celebration will kick off at the 2024 Global Congress, from Nov. 20-23 in Cologne, Germany.
"These past 10 years as the association’s CEO have been an amazing journey, serving the global exhibitions and business events industry," Hattendorf said in a statement. "A role like this is a stewardship for every person in office, and part of that stewardship is to find the right time to pass on the baton to a new leader. I could think of no better time to do this than the coming months and as part of UFI’s centennial, where we recognize the achievement of the past while preparing for the challenges of tomorrow."
In a video Hattendorf posted to LinkedIn, he spoke of the perspective shift he was tasked with bringing to the organization a decade ago. "This permanent evolution, this change of perspective, has been driving me over the last 10 years in this role," he explained. "And as part of that, I had exchanges with the leadership and suggested that the next change of perspective should be for them to look for a new leader for UFI, and bring a new perspective to the organization — which allows me to look for a new perspective for what's ahead in my life."
The Paris-based organization also has operations in Hong Kong; Bogotá, Colombia; Warwick, New York; and Dubai. "UFI has an extremely strong team in place in Paris and the offices around the world, thanks to the amazing work Kai is doing, together with our COO Adeline Vancauwelaert in recent years," commented Geoff Dickinson, CEO of dmg events and president of UFI. "On behalf of the UFI leadership, I cannot highlight enough how Kai’s tireless work over the past 10 years has driven UFI’s growth and development through good times as well as the pandemic — the worst crisis we all had to face in our lifetime. Kai’s commitment to our industry is unparalleled, and we will make sure to see him off in style towards the end of the year."
UFI represents more than 800 member organizations across some 90 countries, and Hattendorf's leadership through the pandemic in particular was vital. "What's most important for exhibitions and the whole business-events industry is that we find a common voice, that we stand to be visible, that we can show we are a critical part of the solution to the challenges the pandemic is presenting us with — and not a part of the problem," Hattendorf told Northstar Meetings Group in the summer of 2020, when he was named one of the industry's Top 25 Influencers.
The UFI leadership team is now managing the process of recruiting the organization's next CEO. Dickinson is heading up that effort, with assistance from Vancauwelaert and Hattendorf himself.