Cees van der Kooij presented with 2012 IPAF President's Award

This year's IPAF President's Award went to Cees van der Kooij, former chief operating officer of Loxam in the Netherlands and former chairman of the IPAF Netherlands Country Council. This was announced at the IPAF Annual General Meeting held on 29 March 2012 in Rome, Italy.

The IPAF President's Award honours individuals who have served the Federation and the powered access industry. It recognises the contribution of individuals in promoting the safe use of powered access.

Announcing the award, IPAF president Wayne Lawson said, "I am very pleased to present the President's Award to Cees van der Kooij. We thank him for all the hard work and leadership in building up an extraordinarily active country council. He challenged IPAF. He pushed us and led us to confront the issues."

Cees van der Kooij was the first chairman of the Netherlands Country Council. In two years, he built up an active country council that has given the powered access industry in the Netherlands a stronger voice. Some of the achievements of this country council include the first Dutch access day in January 2010, promoting IPAF as a membership organisation and increasing IPAF membership in the Benelux by 25% in 2010, involving members in creating joint IPAF stands at exhibitions such as Verticaaldagen and Bouwbeurs, and supporting the successful organisation of the 2011 IPAF Summit and International Awards for Powered Access which were held in Amsterdam.