On March 3 in Dubai at the International Code Council's Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regional office, the Code Council hosted the inaugural meeting of the MENA Building Science Advisory Council. Code Council President Cindy Davis, CBO, Vice President for Global Services Judy Zakreski, and Regional Director of Operations for ICC MENA Mohamed Amer presided at the meeting.

The Advisory Council forms an integral part of the Code Council's strategy in the MENA region to establish strong relationships with experts that influence policy in the region to foster promotion of the Code Council's family of solutions. The Advisory Council provides a platform for its members to provide unbiased expertise to the market and regulators about emergent issues in building safety.

"While the International Codes are widely known and used in the region, more needs to be done to promote the value of leveraging training, certification, product evaluation, and unique accreditation programs available to designers, researchers and regulators," Zakreski said. "The Advisory Council provides an important strategic lever to help deepen the Code Council's market engagement."

The members of the Advisory Council hail from some of the most prestigious organizations in the MENA construction market, including the American Concrete Institute, the American University Sharjah, IE Group, MADA Gypsum, Thomas Bell-Wright International Consultants, Unidome, and Vortex Fire.

"The organizations participating in the Advisory Council are very familiar with the Code Council family of solutions," Amer said. "They are already our strong partners and participation in the Advisory Council formalizes our collaboration and recognizes their importance to us."