Inrals

The long awaited ‘live’ INRALS General Assembly has finally taken place in Luzern, Switzerland. After two online editions, the benefits of meeting in person became more apparent than ever. In a positive, vibrant atmosphere INRALS celebrated and looked back at ten successful years, but also took a good look at itself, its position in the international Life Sciences market and its added value as a global recruitment network. 

The meeting started with the formal transfer of the INRALS presidential chain from GA 2019 host Ken Murphy (CareerWise Recruitment – Ireland) to this year’s excellent host Walter Hölzle of our Swiss member Hölzle, Buri & Partner Consulting. Then there was a quick look back at the achievements of the past 10 years: a strong confirmation of the value of the network in terms of global reach, marketing, knowledge sharing and successful cooperation to offer clients the best possible candidates and services.

Shared ownership and new board
Two of the key issues on the agenda were the ownership and the internal structure of INRALS. In ten years, INRALS has developed into a strong and stable network. This milestone was a good moment for initiators Jan Derks and Michel Vandycke to make their shares in INRALS available for all members. The GA agreed upon a formula to work this out, so all members can have a real stake, real ownership in INRALS, which will even strengthen the commitment and cohesion within the network.
Furthermore, a new board of five was formed with Jan Derks, Dilsâd Babayigit, Cédric de Groulard, Ken Murphy and Michael Thiele. Michel Vandycke steps back from the board, but will stay involved in INRALS in an important and highly appreciated consultative role. During the next years, positions in the board will rotate and will be open for all members.

Fresh perspective
Breakthrough topic was a presentation by German member Dilsâd Babayigit, addressing the value of INRALS from a network perspective, rather than from a business perspective. Whilst the primary focus of individual members is on finding the best candidates for clients, the primary focus of INRALS as a network is to help members doing this with e.g. access to an international candidate base, know-how and expertise and relevant data. The sum total of our expertise and experience is unmatched and of great value to ourselves, our clients and candidates. A fresh perspective, that was adopted enthusiastically and on which INRALS’ activities will build in the future to continue raising our performance in the broadest possible sense.

Diversity and inclusion
One of the highlights of the second GA day was a very insightful and inspirational keynote presentation on Diversity and Inclusion by Judeke Frederiks (HR Director, MSD Switzerland). In an impressive speech with both hard figures and appealing recognizable examples, she unequivocally proved the point that companies (like MSD), fostering a globally and locally diverse and inclusive workforce are more innovative and agile and better attuned to the needs of their customers and perform better. A very fruitful discussion followed and the topic will be incorporated in INRALS’ overall policies.

All in all a very inspiring and fruitful GA, giving INRALS important impulses on its way to the future: we are a strong network with shares for everyone and a new fresh board full of exciting ideas. Meeting each other in person was one of the big plusses and members are already looking forward to the GA of 2023, hosted by our French member CDG Conseil. À bientôt Paris!