Changing of the Guard at APLF
By Dr Michael Redwood and Richard Smith
Director of APLF and Executive Vice President of Informa Markets (Asia), Michael Duck, will be taking on new, expanded responsibilities for the company as Executive Vice President- Commercial Development, a global position. This will mean that after 27 years Michael will be handing over his role as APLF Director to his Hong Kong colleague David Bondi.
It is hard to recall the Asia of 27 years ago a time when few leather industry executives had any knowledge of China beyond a giant that was awakening and could as both a producer and consumer have become important. Few recognized the speed and the scale of what was to follow. What was the role of a trade fair in this early stage? In a leather industry that had for decades become used to major fairs in France and Italy, being the sole punctuation in the calendar year, how should APLF evolve?