I am extremely pleased to add INMR’s voice to the many who have expressed delight at the recent appointment of Dr. Konstantin O. Papailiou as President of CIGRE. This is a richly deserved honor for someone who has devoted their professional life and career to improving design and operation of power networks.

Some of you may not realize that Konstantin is from the insulator world, having once been a pioneer in design and application of composite insulators. For example, during his time as Managing Director of Switzerland-based SEFAG (now Pfisterer), he worked alongside Swiss utility EOS (now Alpiq) to design the world’s first 400 kV compact line.

I accompanied him and Eng. Michel Ammann of EOS during the late 1990s to report on this landmark project, of which Konstantin remains proud even today due to its innovative application of composite hollow core insulators in the pivoting cross-arm arrangement. Hollows had to be used in those days for one component of the insulator assembly due to limits in available rod diameters of solid core composite insulators.

Actually, I had met Konstantin for the first time even before that project, which was reported on by INMR during the late 1990s.

He had agreed to an interview and visit to his plant in 1994/95, when this Journal was only in its infancy. Since INSULATOR NEWS & MARKET REPORT (now INMR) was a complete unknown at the time, accepting me into his office and factory represented a leap of faith – a sign of recognition and acceptance that I have never forgotten. (At the same time, Konstantin has since admitted that after the interview he had doubts about ever seeing me or the journal again.)

Konstantin has remained not only a supporter of INMR but also one of its most valued contributors, first as a Columnist starting in 2017 and later as Key-Note Speaker at the 2019 INMR WORLD CONGRESS in Tucson (listen to his presentation BACK TO THE FUTURE in Topic 2 of this WTR).

Again, most sincere congratulations, Konstantin. I’m sure CIGRE and its worldwide community will benefit immensely from having someone of your experience and dedication at the helm.

Marvin L. Zimmerman
Publisher, INMR