This month FastTrack says farewell to Director General Chris Van Houten, who retires after 13 years of admirable leadership.
Van Houten was appointed FastTrack Director General at the organization’s founding in at the CISAC World Congress in Santiago, Chile in September 2000. His music industry experience, especially his experience in leadership positions in music publishing and at Buma / Stemra, brought strong competence to the young organization in its very earliest days. Just a few months later, in January 2001, Van Houten opened FastTrack’s headquarters in Paris and began building a small but highly capable core team to lead the organization.
FastTrack’s founding philosophy was to provide a collaborative structure in which development of the technical tools, creation of the massive international data sets, and implementation of the network relied upon the voluntary participation of hundreds of executives and staff members from dozens of participating societies. It has been Van Houten’s diligence and determination, and his steadfast dedication to this philosophy, which created the links among the society professionals and ensured the strategic vision that has guided this massive international project for 13 years. That tenacity and dedication to the collaborative vision has perhaps been his most significant contribution.
On behalf of the FastTrack Board of Directors, and his many colleagues in the FastTrack network around the globe, we extend our sincere thanks to Chris Van Houten for his dedicated leadership over FastTrack’s first 13 years.
Claude Gaillard, President FastTrack
A Farewell from Chris van Houten
My 13 years at FastTrack was no doubt the most challenging period in my working career. Starting from scratch, I was able with the support of the technical and business professionals from the shareholders’ societies to build what FastTrack is today. I have always seen the contribution of societies’ experts as the key of FastTrack’ success.
The creation of CIS-Net powered by FastTrack was a major team achievement as we opened the FastTrack applications to the whole of the CISAC community, with the result CIS-Net is nowadays an integrated part of societies’ business processes.
I have always experienced throughout my 13 years at FastTrack the dedicated support from the Board of Directors. Their vision to position FastTrack as an international player, now and in the future, is of most importance.
I was fortunate to have a core team in the Paris office of true professionals, each in their own area of expertise. Not only were they my colleagues but also became over the years true and dear friends.
I leave FastTrack at a time where it faces new challenges and opportunities. I am confident that and FastTrack will continue to play its critical role in the global copyright community.
Chris van Houten
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