IOM Chief Executive Officer Announcement: After forty-six years of service Dr Rob Aitken to retire in the spring of 2021.
11.01.2021IOM's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Rob Aitken, announced that he would retire at the end of March 2021. Rob has been at IOM for more than forty years, holding a number of scientific and leadership roles. In 2002, he became a member of the Board of Management and was appointed to the position of CEO in November 2016.
During Rob's tenure, he established our successful Strategic Consulting division and founded the SAFENANO business in 2006. He led IOM's work programme on nanotechnology risk securing vital funding from a range of EU Framework and Horizon 2020 projects, which provided essential insights and tools in toxicology, exposure monitoring and risk assessment.
In 2012, Rob relocated to Singapore to establish our first overseas business as Managing Director of IOM Singapore. Under his guidance and leadership, the team grew, and today is working with government and industry to offer Occupational Health and Hygiene expertise to improve working conditions across Asia.
He returned to the UK as CEO in late 2016 and led a series of transformative changes to refocus and re-energise the organisation providing stronger emphasis on topics including environment and public health and launching new services including training.
Through the extraordinary challenges and disruption from Coronavirus, Rob has led the organisation to adapt and apply its science to address critical issues in the fight against the disease, including aerosol transmission, the effectiveness of PPE and importance of ventilation and other control approaches.
Rob will be departing IOM having developed exceptionally strong scientific and commercial capability across the organisation and an effective senior leadership team focused on building a financially robust and sustainable organisation. The senior leadership team will continue to deliver on IOM's purpose and commercial aspirations. Rob will continue to work on a limited number of existing projects as an associate.
The recruitment process for Rob’s successor is well underway and an announcement will be made shortly. Throughout this transitional period, the senior leadership team and staff at IOM are committed to our customers and the scientific community. Our shared purpose of improving people's health and safety at work, at home and in the environment through excellent independent science to create a healthy and sustainable world continues.