As the 24th President of IFORS, I am deeply honoured by the trust of the member societies who elected me to this office, and I commit all my efforts towards furthering the goals of our federation. In this task, I am accompanied  by all the members of the 2025-2027 Administrative Committee: Rina SCHNEUR (VP), José Fernando CAMACHO (VP-ALIO), Yu-Hong DAI (VP-APORS), Greet VANDEN BERGHE (VP-EURO), Sibel ALUMUR ALEV (VP-NORAM) and Marco LAUMANNS (Treasurer), with the assistance of  Gavin BLACKETT (Secretary).

IFORS has a long and proud history of promoting the development of Operational Research research and practice worldwide.  I want in particular to thank the 2022-2024 AC members, led by President Janny Leung, who devoted their work and energy to the activities of the federation with great success, and kept the tradition from previous Administrative Committees for efficacity and efficiency.

In a world where emotions, impulses and preconceptions inform many individual and collective decisions, the Operational Research disciplines can make an important contribution to promote rational decision making, based on involvement of all stakeholders, sound data, appropriate models and efficient methods for finding the best solutions to the challenges that beset our societies.

To reach these objectives, we must work towards strengthening IFORS, its regional groupings and its national societies. We must support OR practitioners, scholars and students with relevant, timely and useful information about all aspects of our discipline. We must widen the circles of involvement in our community, to share knowledge and best practices, and to empower new initiatives, aiming to coordinate and reinforce national, regional and worldwide levels. IFORS has developed a number of tools and activities: conferences, journals, social summer and winter institutes, webinars, individual awards,  a newsletter and different social media outlets, etc; I count on you all, members and friends of the global OR community, to participate and to help us to develop existing and new  sinergies, in order to achieve together the widest impact and contribute to a better future for our planet.