Change in leadership: Kabashi takes over the management of opti
With Cathleen Kabashi, an experienced trade fair expert is taking over the management of opti. As trade fair advisor and later director of iba, the world’s leading trade fair for the baking and confectionery industry, Kabashi has made a significant contribution to the further development and internationalisation of this leading trade fair since 2007, which has consistently shown itself to be an economic driver for the baking industry.
In 2021, Kabashi took over the position of division manager of B2B trade fairs at GHM, which she will continue to hold in parallel. Kabashi has networked and exchanged intensively with the ophthalmic industry, especially in the last year, and is consequently building on the good results and partnerships of opti 2023 with the proven team:
“I look forward to leading opti into a successful future in trusting cooperation with the associations and organisations of the optics industry and, of course, with the trade fair exhibitors. My special thanks go to Bettina Reiter, who successfully led opti for years and now has a desire for a change, which we are pleased to accept. I am particularly delighted that she is leaving opti in a strong starting position. The upheaval of the last three years has brought about a lot of change – which we will continue to shape in a positive way and with full commitment. The goal by 2024 is to further raise opti’s profile as the go-to event for start-ups and established industry giants.”
In order to implement this plan, the opti trade fair team is to be further expanded in the future. Kabashi plans to hand over the baton to a new leadership in the medium term, following the strategy of a strong opti in a strong market.
Klaus Plaschka, Managing Director of GHM Gesellschaft für Handwerksmessen mbH added: “Bettina Reiter has achieved great things in her eight years with opti. She not only established it as a leading industry platform, but together with her team, she also manoeuvred opti through the challenging pandemic period to its successful first event after the COVID restrictions in January 2023. We are happy to comply with her wish for change, because I am convinced that FAF – Farbe, Ausbau und Fassade, which takes place every three years, will benefit from Ms Reiter’s concentrated expertise from now on. I would like to expressly thank Bettina Reiter for her consistently excellent achievements for the optics industry!”