ECS Executive Director, Roque Calvo marks 34 years of service
This week at ECS, we’re celebrating Executive Director Roque J. Calvo’s 34th anniversary with the Society. Through hard-work and a clear vision, Calvo has helped transform the Society into what it is today.
Here’s a brief look at Calvo’s roots with ECS and his 34-year journey with the Society.
Roque J. Calvo joined the Society staff in 1980 as the Accounting Supervisor, managing the financial operations for the headquarters. After two years, he was promoted to Assistant Executive Secretary. In 1991, ECS’s Bud Branneky retired and was succeeded by Calvo as the Executive Secretary – being only the fourth to claim this title in the Society’s 98-year history. The title was changed to Executive Director in 1994 – the title that Calvo holds to this day.
During his time with the Society, Calvo has enabled the ECS staff to provide more efficient services to the membership, and he has successfully guided the Society into the complex and demanding “Internet Age.”
Among the many challenges that Calvo has faced, serving ECS’s broad and diverse constituency has been at the forefront. However, Calvo has taken this issue head-on and helped bring tremendous growth in the geographic diversity of ECS constituents. In 1980, when he arrived at ECS, the percentage of constituents from outside the U.S. was 15 percent. Now, that number is over 40 percent.
Under Calvo’s administration, the Society went though a huge technological change in business and publishing. It began with modems, faxes and LANs and rapidly progressed to advanced databases, online communications, digitizing our publications, and now open access.
Through the changing landscape of technology and ECS’s metamorphosis with it, Calvo has assured that the Society has remained focused on its core objectives and competencies. Chiefly, that has been the maintenance and care of the Society’s long-standing reputation of disseminating the highest-quality content in electrochemical and solid state science and technology.
Roque Calvo is as passionate and committed as ever about his work, even after 34 years. He’s also an amazing resource. Get him started on any ECS topic from Bell Labs to moving the headquarters to Pennington, NJ and he’ll fill in all details. It’s astounding to think of all the great minds in science that he’s worked with.
Roque, for your 34 years of drive, focus, and steadfast dedication to ECS – we thank you.
Check out Calvo’s interview with Interface when he marked his 20th anniversary to delve deeper into the highlights of his years at ECS.
