ITA General Assembly and WTC 2025 Recap

The 51st ITA General Assembly and World Tunnel Congress 2025 (WTC 2025) was held May 9-15 in Stockholm, Sweden. It marked an important transition year for the ITA as a quorum of Member Nation representatives voted on significant developments.

Among the highlights was the election of Andrea Pigorini of Italy as ITA President for 2025-2028.
Arnold Dix remains on the Executive Council as Immediate Past President for the coming three years. Three new Vice Presidents were also elected: Klaus Rieker of Germany, First Vice President; Sanja Zlatanic of USA, Vice President; and Damian McGirr of United Kingdom, Vice President. New Executive Council Members are Elena Chiriotti of France; Nobuharu Isago of Japan; Zhigou Zhang of China; Hamdi Aydin of Turkey; and Johan Mignon of Belgium.

WTC 2025 was also the first for new ITA Executive Director Helen Roth, who took the helm of the association on Jan. 1, 2025.

In other news, Papua New Guinea was agreed and welcomed as the 81st Member Nation of ITA. Jinxiu Jenny Yan, Past ITA President 2019-2022, was appointed as an Adviser to the ITA and Executive Council. Five leaders of the industry were appointed Fellows of ITA in recognition of their contributions: Ray Stirling, USA; Rakesh Kumar Khali, India; Giuseppe Lunardi, Italy, who accepted on behalf of his father, Pietro Lunardi; Kari Korpela, Finland; and Randall Essex, USA.

In a tight contest separated by just two votes, Singapore was selected to host WTC 2028. WTC 2026 will be hosted in Montréal, Canada, and WTC 2027 will be hosted in Antwerp, Belgium.