Associations
GAIN Meeting, Cape Town, April 2016.
FdA National Congress, Madrid, October 2015
CIAC Group, Shanghai, China, December 2014
GAIN Meeting, Brussels, October 2014
CMIC Discussion Group, Brisbane, September 2014
Raw Materials Conference, Madrid, June 2010.
Atlantic Alliance Meeting, Brussels, October 2010.
CCAA Australia, Brisbane, July 2011.
UEPG General Secretariat, September 2011.
OSSGA AGM, Toronto, February 2012.
UEPG Delegates Assembly, Lisbon, May 2011.
China Aggregates Association Conference, Guanzhou, December 2016
Jim O’Brien was President of UEPG, the Brussels-based European Aggregates Association from May 2009 to May 2012, and continues as its Honorary President. The aggregates industry is the largest non-energy extractive sector in Europe, with a turnover of around €20 billion, consisting in 15,000 companies (most of which are SMEs), producing 2.6 billion tonnes of crushed stone, sand & gravel at 25,000 quarries and pits with over 200,000 people employed.
UEPG now represents aggregates associations and producers in 30 countries, and it lobbies on behalf of the aggregates industry in front of the European Commission and Parliament, NGOs and various other key stakeholders. UEPG also actively promotes the good image of the aggregates industry through continued public relations and communications activities at European and national level.
Jim’s lobbying and representational activities on behalf of UEPG during his Presidency took him to 20 European countries, as well as to international aggregates associations in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Columbia, Canada and the United States. Links have also been established with the aggregates industry in South Africa, India and China.
Jim was President of CEPMC (Council of European Producers of Materials for Construction) from 2003 to 2008. CEPMC (now CPE) is the Brussels-based umbrella organisation then representing building materials associations in 17 countries and 30 sectoral associations. CPE actively lobbies on key pan-sectoral technical, fire-related, environmental and resource-related challenges affecting building materials.
From 2003 to 2009 he was Co-Chair of the global Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) Task Force on Health and Safety, under the auspices of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). Key successes were the introduction of global safety reporting standards, exchanges of safety best practice and introduction of fatality prevention initiatives on driving and contractor safety management.
