Cleto Sagripanti, President of the Italian Footwear Association (Assocalzaturifici), was unanimously voted as CEC's next President and takes over the residency headed by the French Jean-Pierre Renaudin.

Mr. Renaudin will continue leading the French Footwear Federation that he never abandoned, and will dedicate himself to his other multiple passions like mentoring young entrepreneurs to make their dreams a reality.

“When I became CEC’s president two-years ago, I was conscious that the new challenges that our footwear industry were facing could not only be solved at European level. We needed to continue going global and reinforcing multilateral dialogues”, explained Mr. Renaudin, adding: “I am confident that the International Footwear Forum will become a new channel of dialogue between all our associations of around the world”.

The recently elected President Cleto Sagripanti plans to leave the Presidency of Assocalzaturifici in mid-June to fully dedicate his time to the Presidency of the European Confederation. Mr. Sagripanti already commented on the new position: “As CEC President I will indeed continue the international initiatives undertaken by Jean-Pierre, trying to reinforce the strength and unity of our European industries. In this relation, I will work for the EU support to re-shoring strategies, to promote market access on a level playing field, and to fight for a better regulatory environment for our SMEs”.

Carmen Arias Castellano will remain as the General Secretary and will continue to represent the sector within the European Commission.

CEC was created more than 30 years ago as the voice of the European footwear industry in Brussels. It gathers footwear national associations and federations of the European Union, representing approximately 87% of footwear production.