At today's inaugural general meeting in Sofia, the committee (detailed below) was formally elected under the chairmanship of Jim Southworth, operations director for Central and Eastern Europe for United Utilities, the operator of Sofia's local water company Sofiyska Voda. Established in 1957, the London-based Guild (or PIG as it is affectionately known by its members) already has six UK Branches, together with one in Ireland and an international Branch, all of whom have an active role in pursuing the Guild's objectives of “promoting pipelines, meeting people, and advancing technology”. Currently, the Guild has a world-wide membership of 800+ individual, and over 250 corporate, members of different grades. The initiative to form the new branch has been warmly welcomed by the Bulgarian utility and pipeline industries, particularly as it is seen as an invaluable precursor to Bulgaria's accession to the EU in 2007, for which there is much local support and enthusiasm. Bulgaria is also an acknowledged centre for the whole region, and has significant role to play in developing energy and transport corridors between Russia and the east and the rest of Europe. Jim Southworth is delighted at the opportunity this will provide for both the Guild, and the pipeline and utility industries, to develop a broad network of individuals and companies for exchanging ideas and technologies to the benefit of all precisely the role for which the Guild is most well known and which is at the heart of its activities. The broader concept of establishing a centre of excellence is one of the first targets that the new branch could discuss; while this might seem overly-ambitious to those who have not visited the region, it is clear that many of the requirements for this are already available, and enthusiasm for the idea is acknowledged. Whether this will be an actual facility, or a network of 'trained trainers' is, of course, one of the first issues to be decided upon; at the very least it could start with the Guild facilitating establishment of common pipeline-industry standards and operational practices. At today's inaugural meeting, the following were proposed for election to the Branch Committee: Chairman: Jim Southworth, Sofiyska Voda and Operations Director, United Utilities 1st deputy Chairman: Sacho Dontchev, Managing Director, Overgas 2nd deputy Chairman: Tsolo Vutov, President, Geotechmin Hon. Sec.: Nikolay Minkov, Manging Director, Uconomics Hon. Treas.: Genadi Tabakov, Executive Director, Finance Engineering Members: Venislav Iotov, CEO, AIG Bulgaria, and Chairman, B Ins Assoc Emil Kulev, President, DZI Bank Mrs Sasha Bezuhanova, CEO, Hewlett Packard Bulgaria, and VP, BIBA Hans Hutta, Director, CEE, OMV No Prokopiev, President, Kaolin Valentin Zlatev, General Manager, Lukoil Bulgaria, and SEE co-ordinator of the Lukoil group of companies For further details of the Guild and its activities, or of the new Branch, please contact the Guild's Director-General Richard Glenister at +44 (0)20 7235 7938 or hqsec@pipeguild.co.uk.