Mark Warren can now breathe a sigh of relief as his tenure as GGF President is now over!

It might have slipped most minds as we all got down to work during a busy start, but on January 1st the GGF Presidency changed hands. For the next two years the GGF is in the hands of Brian Baker of Glassolutions Saint Gobain. I don’t really know much about this new guy.

I would like to say well done to Mark Warren for engaging with the industry much more and trying to change the perception of the GGF with the rest of the industry. He communicated as much as he could and I think he probably changed a few people’s minds. Although there is a lot of negative commentary around the GGF that still remains.

My main concern is that Brian may not be as active as Mark was. Mark is staying on the board for another 12 months, but after that it is all Brian. My advice to him would be to keep engaging with the industry online. There is a very large community on there now and ignoring them and undoing the good work Mark has done would ruin any progress made in improving the image of the GGF.

It’s going to be a battle, however he takes on the challenge. Mark will be the first to tell him that there are a lot of sceptics out there and convincing them that the GGF exists for the good of the industry won’t be an easy task. But if the GGF wants to expand it’s membership and grow in the coming years, it is something they are going to have to buckle down and do.

Personally, I think the GGF does do some good, but I believe it’s model is still outdated for a modern fenestration industry. Just my opinion, some will agree some won’t.

I wish Brian Baker the best of luck over the coming two years and hope that he does the smart thing, join Twitter and have a good old fashioned argument with me about all things glass!