ECHA

Role

The Executive Director is in charge of the management and administration of the Agency, excluding the Board of Appeal. He is the legal representative of the European Chemicals Agency and reports to the ECHA's Management Board.

Biography

Geert Dancet became the first elected Executive Director of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in January 2008. Under his leadership, the Agency successfully managed the pre-registration deadline of December 2008 and the first registration deadline of 30 November 2010. ECHA has become one of the large-size regulatory agencies of the EU with over 500 staff members in charge of the EU chemicals legislation, soon to include biocides.

The Commission nominated him as interim Executive Director in January 2007 shortly after the adoption of the REACH Regulation in order to set up the Agency in Helsinki.

From 2004 to 2007 he was the Head of the REACH Unit in the European Commission's Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry. The unit was co-responsible for taking the REACH proposal through the regulatory process in the Council and the European Parliament as well as for developing and coordinating the REACH implementation strategy, which included the preparations for the new Chemicals Agency.

He first joined the European Commission in 1986 and worked for most of his Commission career in the competition policy field. Prior to working for the European Commission, Mr Dancet enjoyed a brief academic career in the University of Leuven (Belgium) and was a programme coordinator for the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in Colombia.

He studied economics, econometrics and philosophy at the University of Leuven, Belgium. Mr Dancet is married with four children.