VIRGILIO GARCÍA, NEW PRESIDENT OF ADDIMAT

The Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu presided over the AFM CLUSTER General Assembly held on May 17th at the Kursaal, accompanied by the Regional Minister for Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment, Arantxa Tapia, the Deputy General of Gipuzkoa, Eider Mendoza and the Mayor of Donostia-San Sebastián, Eneko Goia.

Throughout the morning, the assemblies of six of the associations that make up the AFM Cluster were held, namely AFM, ADDIMAT, AFMEC, ESKUIN, UPTEK and STECH.

The ADDIMAT assembly appointed as president Virgilio Garcia, CEO of Novaindef, the Defence and Space Division of the Sicnova Group which, since its foundation in 2007, has specialised in the implementation and application of 3D scanners and additive manufacturing with metals and polymers, transferring knowledge to different industrial sectors as well as different training programmes and for trainers in the education sector.

At the AFM assembly, José Pérez Berdud was re-elected as president for another two years.

The AFMEC assembly elected Fernando Gastaldo to chair the Association. Gastaldo is the Managing Director of FACTOR, a family business founded in 1982 that offers industrialisation, integration, machining and bar turning services to advanced industrial sectors.

For its part, the UPTEK General Assembly, in addition to renewing its Board of Directors, appointed David Oyarzun as president of the association for the next two years. David Oyarzun, who has been part of the Board since the creation of the association in 2019, is CEO and co-founder of the startup NUAVIS, created in 2017 and specialised in the development of high added-value artificial vision solutions for the industrial sector.

The STECH assembly elected as president Alfonso Ganzabal, CEO of SISTEPLANT, an engineering company founded in 1984, whose main activity is the deployment of transformation projects towards smart factories using innovative organisational techniques and the most advanced information and manufacturing technologies.

After the general assemblies, the more than 500 attendees gathered for a joint celebration event, "Advanced and Digital Manufacturing Day 2024", in which, after the presentation by Xabier Ortueta, CEO of AFM Cluster of the economic outlook, Juan Luis Arsuaga spoke as guest speaker. During the event, the association paid tribute to a much loved and respected person in the sector, José Ignacio Torrecilla, from the company GEMINIS, to whom the AFM gold insignia was presented.

The closing ceremony was attended by the Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu, Arantxa Tapia, Minister of Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment of the Basque Government, Eider Mendoza, Deputy General of Gipuzkoa and Eneko Goia, Mayor of Donostia-San Sebastián. Together with them, Mikel Amundarain, Deputy Minister of Industry, Estíbaliz Hernáez, Deputy Minister of Technology, Innovation and Digital Transformation, Ane Insausti, Provincial Councillor for Economic Promotion, Tourism and the Rural Environment of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, Ainara Basurko, Provincial Councillor for Economic Promotion, Tourism and the Rural Environment of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, Saray Zárate, Provincial Councillor for Economic Promotion, Tourism and the Rural Environment of the Provincial Council of Álava, and Aitor Urzelai, Director General of SPRI, among others.

From the business world, the presidents of the AFM Cluster associations, José Pérez Berdud of AFM, the vice-president of AFM, Cesar Garbalena, the secretary of AFM, Alexandre Fernández i Grau, the secretary general of CONFEMETAL, Andrés Sánchez de Apellániz, the General Manager of ELKARGI, Zenón Vázquez, the President of ADEGI, Eduardo Junquera, and the General Manager, José Miguel Ayerza, the President of the Gipuzkoa Chamber of Commerce, Mauricio Arregui, as well as representatives of numerous companies associated with AFM Cluster.