AREA, the Air conditioning and Refrigeration European Association, which represents acr contractors and specialists across Europe, voted for a new board during its spring meeting in Vienna.
Gerhard Neuhauser from the Austrian Association OEKKV will lead the board as president.

Graeme Fox, former chairman of the UK 's RAC group, has joined the AREA board as a director. Read his blog here.

Other new board members are Per Vemork from KELF, Norway, who joins as a director and Frank Heuberger, from the German BIV, the board's new treasurer.

Those remaining on the board are Jean Jacquin from the French Association SNEFCCA (past president) , Attila Zoltan from the HKVSZ, Hungary (vice president) and new president Gerhard Neuhauser.

Neuhauser replaces Christian Scholz who resigned. Neuhauser said he believes AREA must:-

-continue improving the national associations' representation in Brussels,
-preserve the interests of the contractors, mainly with regard to the new legal challenges as well as the directives on environment, health, safety and energy efficiency
-'Harmonize' the levels of training across the EU
-support the EU and national governments in matters of the environment.

Norman Mitchell has stepped down from the board to retire. He is one of AREA's longest serving representatives, Mitchell served as treasurer and is a former president.

The board has yet to appoint a new general secretary, a post previously held by Joop Hoogkamer.

The AREA trade associations was founded in 1988 and represents European contractors and specialists in air conditioning, refrigeration and heat exchanger technology.

AREA's 21 members come from 19 countries and represent more than 10,000 companies throughout Europe.