TOPRA undertakes changes and expands services to better serve members

Dear TOPRA Colleagues & Friends,

As we approach the 2008 TOPRA Symposium, ‘Continuous Regulatory Evolution’, in conjunction with the Hungarian Regulatory Agency, I have been asked to reflect briefly on activities that have happened or are happening within TOPRA this year.

First, my highest priority on taking on the Presidency at the last Symposium in Copenhagen was to actively implement the TOPRA strategy which was put together by all the TOPRA Board early in 2007 under Axel Wenzel’s Leadership. So this is what we have been busy on and the
following have been the achievements so far and what is anticipated for the future:

We have recruited two new Directors: Neil Fisher & Steve Wratten who have been actively leading and developing new initiatives in our Education & Training and Corporate services as well as supporting Lynda Wight in leading the implementation of the Board’s strategy for our organisation
The TOPRA Board has become more strategic and you will see in our proposal to be sent out to the membership before the next Annual Meeting that we are developing the structure of the Board to reflect this. We have also have radically changed our culture in the TOPRA organisation in this respect.
The new website is just about to be released and will be available to the membership in September and will be on display at the Symposium. We look forward to your feedback on this after its launch, as we want this website to be the primary site you visit daily for all your professional needs.
We are developing strategies to increase membership as well as encouraging the current membership to be involved and rewarded within the TOPRA organisation. We will be rolling these out during the coming 12 months. You may have noticed we are introducing local membership meetings in Mainland Europe and the US. Over the last couple of years these have taken place in France, Sweden, Holland, Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic as well as the UK and |East and West coast USA. We hope to step these up over the year as well as holding more local meetings in UK and Ireland – watch out for these in your area.
New innovative products, services and events for members are being developed especially on the new website. I hope you find the news alerts that we have recently introduced to be an easy way to keep up with all the top stories in our industry. You will also see shortly the introduction of our leadership and personal development initiative that will be rolled out both as website e-learning services as well as face to face courses – If you are looking for management and leadership training tailored for regulatory affairs professionals look out for these in the coming months.
As you will have seen, we have begun to implement the ‘Life Long Learning’ (LLL) initiative to move TOPRA to become a truly professional organisation for regulatory affairs. Other initiatives are being developed to increase our premier position as The Organisation for Professionals in Regulatory Affairs
Volunteer recognition and awards for those that are actively involved in TOPRA and in promoting regulatory excellence have been and will continue to be introduced.
There are also a number of interesting collaborations being set up for future meetings with regulatory and other likeminded professional organisations and Regulatory Agencies.
Of course we are also developing new strategies for improving on our existing services both in Education, information, career and other membership services – so watch out for new initiatives to meet your current and future needs.

I think you agree that these are exciting developments to look forward to in TOPRA as a member. In addition, if you are a member and are looking for a professional challenge and wish to actively network and make new friends with regulatory colleagues at all levels in the Industry, consultancies and regulatory agencies, come and join one of the numerous professional volunteer working parties or web regulatory interest groups we have within TOPRA. Details can be obtained from the TOPRA office. However If you are not a member and want to be, please go to our new website www.topra.org or contact the TOPRA office for further information and an application form.

I also hope you enjoy reading the first TOPRA Annual Report in 2007/2008 which will be sent to you this year as a member which provides more in depth review of the TOPRA activities in this period. It will also be available from the TOPRA Office or at the symposium for non members. We will also be providing a more in depth review at the Symposium AGM.

I would like to thank this year’s Chair of the Symposium Working Party, Patrizia Nestby as well as Christopher Bailey and the rest of the working party team outlined in this publication for putting together this exciting scientific Symposium Programme. I think you will agree there are some very interesting sessions and I know as previous Chair of the Symposium, the tremendous commitment of all our TOPRA volunteers it takes to achieve the high standard we set. We also acknowledge the help we have had from our friends in HURAS, the regulatory society for those based in Hungary ,and colleagues in AAPS in the USA for their contribution to the programme.

I would like to thank Professor Tamas Paal and Dr Zsuzsanna Szepezdi, the new Director-General, as well as the rest of their team at Hungarian Agency for their fantastic support this year.

Finally, I would like to thank Lynda Wight and the rest of the TOPRA permanent staff, as well as the rest of the TOPRA Board for their hard work during 2007/2008 in implementing this exciting and focused strategy and also for their contribution towards making the 2008 Symposium so successful.

Craig McCarthy
TOPRA President 2007/2008

PS: If you would like to contact me with suggestions, ideas or comments, please contact me on c.mccarthy@topra.org

For more information or to attend the TOPRA Symposium, please call +44 207 538 9502 or email meetings@topra.org.