Paris: The international general assembly of Unmanned Vehicle Systems (UVS) International, organizer of UAS 2008, Europe's largest annual conference and exhibition dedicated to unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), has unanimously elected 15 persons to constitute its new board of directors.

UAS 2008 will take place in Paris, France on 10-12 June 2008.

The board of directors will have the following members:

Jean Caron
EADS Défense & Sécurité, France - 1st year of 4th mandate

Patrice Chenière
Sagem Défense & Sécurité, France - 1st year of 2nd mandate

Eric Edsall
Insitu Group, USA - 1st year of 1st mandate

Ian Glenn
ING Engineering, Canada - 1st year of 1st mandate (formerly observer)

Richard Kennedy
Boeing R&T Europe, Spain - 1st year of 2nd mandate

David Kershaw
BAE Systems, UK - 1st year of 1st mandate (formerly observer)

Alexander Koldaev
Irkut Corp., Russian Fed. - 1st year of 1st mandate (formerly observer)

Manfred Lehnigk
Diehl BGT Defence, Germany - 1st year of 1st mandate

Steve May
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, USA - 1st year of 1st mandate (formerly observer)

Nick Miller
Thales Aerospace, UK - 2nd year of 2nd mandate

Trevor Rogers
TGR Helicorp., New Zealand - 1st year of 2nd mandate

Itai Toren
Elbit Systems, Israel - 1st year of 1st mandate

Peter van Blyenburgh
Blyenburgh & Co., France - 1st year of 6th mandate

Robert Veenhuizen
CybAero, Sweden - 1st year of 1st mandate

John Walker
The Padina Group, 1st year of 2nd mandate

The UVS international board of directors will have a term of two years.

The General Assembly also elected the following directors to constitute the executive committee:

Peter van Blyenburgh - president - sixth term
Jean Caron - treasurer - fourth term
Nick Miller - secretary - second term

In a statement the organisation said that the constitution of the new board of directors clearly illustrates the association's international growth, highlights its global scope, and should contribute to position it favourably to continue deploying its world-wide activities for the benefit of the international unmanned systems community.

Started in 1995, as EURO UVS (European Unmanned Vehicle Systems Association), this non-profit organisation, registered with the Chamber of Commerce in The Hague, The Netherlands and operating out of offices in Paris, France, changed its statute and its name to UVS International (Unmanned Vehicle Systems International) in January 2004, in order to better reflect its global character and reach.

All corporate members, irrespective of the country of establishment, have voting rights at the General Assembly. The association currently has 256 corporate and institutional members in 34 countries, and is the leading international organisation dedicated to the promotion of unmanned systems (air, ground and naval).

As for the UAS 2008, all information on this event can be found on www.uas2008.org