In recent months, ICCROM has said farewell to four beloved members of the staff. As ICCROM’s Director-General Stefano De Caro put it, “In a small organization such as ICCROM, every colleague who ends his cycle inevitably leaves a void and a piece of knowledge and experience, and it will be a challenge to fill that gap.”
Pietro Baldi joined ICCROM as driver in 1986 under the directorship of Cevat Erder. Since that time, together with colleague Enrico Carra, he started to develop the Logistics office, centralising activities such as building maintenance, purchasing of supplies, and the logistical organization of meetings and events in a single service. Pietro was always appreciated, effective and flexible and above all able to adjust to last minute requests.
Gianna Paganelli came to the ICCROM Library as contractor in 1978, joining the Library’s staff in 1981. Over the years she has collaborated on a wide range of projects, from retrospective cataloguing and data input in the Library database, to archival work with photographs and audiovisual materials, publications sales and marketing research, the first scans of ICCROM past publications, and most recently, acquisitions and binding activities for the Library’s current journal collections, in addition to accounting, reference work and cataloguing of core periodical literature.
Sonia Widmer joined ICCROM in 1983 as receptionist, and in 1990 became secretary for Dr. Jukka Jokilehto, Assistant to the Director-General at the time, and Director of the Architectural Conservation Course. Sonia subsequently worked with Prof. Herb Stovel, former Director of the Heritage Settlements Unit, as an Administrative Assistant, and has remained in this capacity. Her responsibilities have included organizing travel and accommodations for ICCROM staff on mission and participants to ICCROM courses and meetings, along with other administrative and logistical tasks.
Bruno Pisani started working at ICCROM as Manager of Finance and Administration in 2003. Before that, he had a career spanning over thirty years at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, where he worked in administration, finance and personnel, specialising in human resources. Over the course of his career he has travelled extensively, and lived in a range of countries including Tunisia, Chile and Thailand.
ICCROM staff and friends will miss these cherished colleagues, and we wish them all best as they begin their new life chapter.
We are pleased to welcome new members to this great family:
Dilum Chaminda Nanayakkara, from Sri Lanka, arrived at ICCROM in June after an experience of similar duties at the Embassy of Algeria and before that, the Embassy of Cameroon in Rome. He will be working for Logistics, ensuring that day-to-day activities are the carried out smoothly and productively.
Cécile Gallon, from France, joined ICCROM as Library Assistant in June. Before coming to ICCROM, she had spent several years in Rome working in libraries such as the Académie de France à Rome (Villa Médicis), and the École Française de Rome (Palazzo Farnese) and also as consultant in the ICCROM Library. Before that, she had worked at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Institut national du patrimoine, after passing the state exams for “Assistante de conservation” and “Bibliothécaire assistante spécialisée”. She received a Master’s degree in art history at the Sorbonne University in 1997.
We also wish to mention Sophy Janowski of Canada, who will be joining ICCROM as Chief Management Officer in September.