ITS (UK) has welcomed the appointment of Chris Phlip as the new ITS Canada board chair, which comes a year before the society is due to host the 24th ITS World Congress in Montreal.

Chris is director of transportation with consultant CIMA+ and has been involved in intelligent transport systems and with ITS Canada for many years.

Commenting on his appointment, ITS (UK) secretary general Jennie Martin said: “ITS (UK) congratulates Chris on his appointment as chair of the board of ITS Canada. ITS (UK) has a longstanding, mutually supportive relationship with ITS Canada going back to the World Congress in Toronto in 1999.”

She added: “We look forward to contributing to and promoting the 2017 World Congress which will take place in Montreal.”

Chris has served on the ITS Canada Board of Directors for three terms and sat on the Board Executive as treasurer.

Recently he led a task force charged with identifying and pursuing new opportunities for ITS Canada and, as chair, he will now guide the organisation through the implementation of the task force’s recommendations.

Chris succeeds Michael De Santis who served as board chair since 2013. Michael is a leading advocate of ITS activity in Canada and was able to strengthen relationships and expand awareness of ITS across the transportation sector during his tenure.

Michael remains as a director of ITS Canada, and will continue to lead the preparations for the 2017 Montreal World Congress for the organisation.

“It is an exciting time for ITS Canada with such big changes taking place in the industry, with the World Congress in Montreal October 2017 and now with changes in our organization’s leadership,” a spokesperson for the society said.

This article originally appeared on ITS UK Review.