José Pires Appointed Interim Chair of BUC

In News, News, Official Communication, Press Release * Official Communication by WFDF

[lead]WFDF appoints José Pires as interim chair of the Beach Ultimate Committee[/lead]

The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) announced today that its board had appointed José Pires of France as interim chair of the Beach Ultimate Committee.  He will also join the board and serve through December 2016. Pires replaces Patrick van der Valk, who had resigned for personal reasons. Pires, who had been the Deputy chair of the committee, does not intend to run for election in December and so the search for candidates for the next two-year term beginning 1 January 2017 has begun immediately.

“Patrick has been a visionary driving the development of Beach Ultimate for nearly two decades,” stated WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch. “In addition, the global disc community commends him for his incredible contributions to WFDF since becoming a board member in 2011. While Patrick is no longer able to manage the responsibilities and challenges of the role in light of professional commitments, we are pleased that he will continue to play an important role on our Spirit of the Game Committee and maintain his involvement with BULA. With our partner BULA continuing under his leadership, we are convinced that the 2017 World Championship of Beach Ultimate in Royan (FRA) with 120 teams will be the best WCBU ever.”

“It is in my personal as well as professional nature to grow and solidify ideas and hand them off when the time is right” commented van der Valk. “I started promoting and growing Beach Ultimate 16 years ago, and believe the growth of the World Championships of Beach Ultimate (WCBU) is indicative that the sport has evolved significantly; it is no longer a start-up. Since I need to focus my energy on some new projects, and considering my rapidly increasing responsibilities as WFDF and BULA representative at the event, the time was right to hand my WFDF responsibilities to someone else.”

Jose Pires is a French Grandmaster level player, with Portuguese blood. He started playing Ultimate in 1996 and Beach Ultimate in 1997.  As a player, he attended WCBU2007 and WCBU2010 and countless beach tournaments.   He is also quite involved on the organizational side of Ultimate at the French Federation. Most notably, he was the Treasurer and international contact from 2006 to 2012 and part of the EUC2003 organizing committee. He is currently treasurer of a French Regional League.  On the beach specific side, he has been a member of the WFDF Beach Ultimate Committee, he was on the staff at the first WCBU, organized the first ECBU in 2008, and continues to organize the annual YesButNau beach tournament with his home team the “Frisbeurs Nantais.”  He first became involved with BULA in 2008. When not playing or organizing, he maintains an active passion as a photographer, and has been an official photographer at many Ultimate tournaments. His work can be seen at http://joez.smugmug.com.  In his remaining free time, he works as an IT manager at a local social housing company.

For further information on the open position please contact:

Volker Bernardi, Executive Director