We are glad to announce the Mentors who are ready and willing to support the Active New Professionals throughout the year. We received 15 applications from 9 different countries, with an outstanding response from the French-speaking community.
The pairings are based on the professional and academic background, current interests and language preferences of all Mentors and Mentees. Regular cohort meetings with all Mentors and Mentees will also provide a great opportunity for everyone to learn from each other.
To welcome this new group of Mentors into the New Professionals Programme and the ICA community, we invite you to read below their biographies, as written by their Mentees.
Active New Professional
Mentor
Rebecca Adams, United Kingdom
Ngoako Solomon Marutha, South Africa
Randolphe Hildebert Aglikpo, France (from Benin)
Antony Belin, France
Lars Smaaberg, Norway
Martin Stürzlinger, Austria
Dinza Tang-Irmi, Chad
Hélène Chambefort, France
Saman Quraishi, India
Hilde-Elisabeth Haaland, Switzerland (from Norway)
Gaëlle Stephan, Lebanon
Elisabeth Bühlmann Herzog, Switzerland
Ngoako Solomon Marutha, South Africa
Ngoako Solomon Marutha is currently a Professor in the Department of Information Science at the University of South Africa (UNISA). He graduated with a Master of Information Science degree in the year 2012 and Doctor of Literature and Philosophy (PhD) in 2017 at the University of South Africa (UNISA). He has worked as a librarian and information specialist for several organisations including the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and Palma Development Group. He has also worked as a deputy director for information and records management for hospitals, health and social security organisations and implemented important records management programmes for a variety of organisations. Ngoako joined UNISA as a Senior Lecturer in September 2017 and became a full Professor in 2021. Over the past five years much of his time has been spent on research as he has published more than 20 articles, one authored book, and four book chapters in accredited national and international publications and reviewed several journals and book chapters including in Information Development.
Ngoako is a dedicated member of the ICA and is currently elected to serve as an Executive Member of the ICA Section on University and Research Institution Archives (SUV). He also represents UNISA Information Science within the ICA membership. He is also a National Executive Committee member for the South African Society of Archivists and currently serves as an editor-in-chief for the Journal of the South African Society of Archivists. He is currently teaching archival principles and practice, honour’s level research in archives and records management, information, and knowledge governance.
His research interests include knowledge, archives, and records management, especially with regards to patient and hospital records, electronic records, fourth industrial revolution technology, police case records security and library management.
Mentee: Rebecca Adams, United Kingdom
Antony Belin, France
With nearly 20 years of experience, Antony Belin holds a Diploma in Management of Dematerialization and Digital Archiving (Mines ParisTech) and a Master degree in Archives. He became an archivist because he wanted to help others not to lose files and records.
As a qualified expert archivist, particularly in the field of records management, he has worked for both public and private institutions in France, notably in the Departmental Archives (Vienne), the National Archives, the Social Security.
These experiences have enabled him to work for private third-party archives who work on public orders. He has worked with the Navaho group, formerly the Sewan group, and with API Tiers archivists. Since 2020, he has been responsible for third-party archiving services for administrations and local authorities (TA@CT) in France.
In addition to his duties as a qualified expert in records management, Antony has also worked as Quality and Environment Manager (QEM) and Data Protection Officer (DPO) within the Navaho group. His areas of expertise include digital archiving, digital recordkeeping systems, dematerialization, records management, etc.
Antony has also published more than 50 resources on records and archives management: white papers, articles, reports, training resources and books, with a particular focus on records management and digital archiving.
On the association front, he is a certified archival professional member of the Association des archivistes du Québec (AAQ) for whom he creates various publications.
Mentee: Randolphe Hildebert Aglikpo, France (from Benin)
Martin Stürzlinger, Austria
Dr. Martin Stürzlinger lives in Vienna and is the CEO of the archival consulting company Archiversum in Austria. In addition, he is also a part-time professor teaching at the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences (FH:P). With more than 25 years of professional experience within the public and private archival sectors, Martin is an expert in records and archives management. With his forward-thinking and efficient view of the field, Martin’s work consistently pushes the national and international standards of thinking in archives.
Martin studied History and Archival Sciences at the University of Vienna before he continued his training with the studies of Library and Information Science at the University of Maryland, USA. He quickly realized the connection between archives and information science, which has profoundly shaped his view on the field.
As Martin began his professional career at the Vienna City Archives, he was quickly appointed as the Information and Digital Preservation Manager. In 2006 Martin left his job in Vienna to work as a consultant for the private business ‘scope solutions ag’, a leading software company for archival systems located in Basel, Switzerland. Martin signed a three-years contract with scope solutions but sooner rather than later left home for Vienna to start his new company, which today is named Archiversum, with scope solutions among his clients since 2016.
Martin participates and has participated in several networks and working groups. Among these is the non-profit network Business History in Austria, aimed at bringing archivists together, as well as his current membership of the ICA-EGAD (Expert Group on Archival Description).
Mentee: Lars Smaaberg, Norway
Hélène Chambefort, France
Since 1991, she has overseen the archives service of the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm). She has set up and developed the archiving policy in her institution in partnership with the National Archives and the archives services of other public institutions and universities. She is one of the representatives of the research organisations in the AURORE section of the Association of French Archivists (AAF), in which she is fully involved. Passionate about her profession as an archivist and about scientific archives, she participates in the development of numerous tools shared by her community, such as classification sheets for scientific archives, the guide to managing archives in universities for the Agence de Mutualisation des Universités and the reference system for laboratory archives. Very interested in new technologies, she launched a project in order to deploy a digital recordkeeping system at Inserm, in order to manage electronic archives, particularly Inserm’s activity documents, such as laboratory notebooks.
She is also very interested in training and was able to participate in the supervision of an archivist trainee at the association helping the users of La Villette’s urban park in 2010-2011. She worked closely with this association on the certification of the archival assistant training in partnership with the AAF, of which she was also administrator in charge of the Training, Employment and Professions Committee, between 2019 and 2022. She also mentors archival interns for long periods, lectures at two universities on intermediate archives and scientific archives, and since this year has been involved in the International Council on Archives’ Mentoring Programme.
A research engineer and civil servant, Hélène has published a dozen books and has led and participated in several conferences with very interesting papers.
Mentee: Dinza Tang-Irmi, Chad
Hilde-Elisabeth Haaland, Switzerland (from Norway)
Hilde Elisabeth Haaland is currently Senior Archivist at the UNHCR – The UN Refugee Agency where she is responsible for the global records management programme. Hilde manages a team of archivists and archives assistants in Geneva, Bangkok, Pretoria, and Panama City. She has long-standing experience with implementing and supporting several EDRMS systems, and developing file plans, and retention schedules. She has studied archival science at the University of Oslo and now has 25 years of experience in records and archives management where her tasks have covered the complete records life cycle. Hilde is also a historian of the Middle Ages, and she specializes in studying white and black magic practitioners in the Icelandic and Norwegian sagas. Over time she has provided guidance on record keeping and development and training of offices and individuals. She continues to mentor and coach colleagues, advance various digitization projects, and is constantly working with data protection issues.
Hilde’s career started at the National Archives of Norway as a reference archivist. She has since then been associated with various other international organizations like the Nordic Council and the Council of Europe. For the last 15 years, Hilde has worked primarily at the records management end. The importance of good recordkeeping practices for world heritage is one of her passions, and the rapid technological development and usage of commercial platforms are a great concern to her.
Mentee: Saman Quraishi, India
Elisabeth Bühlmann Herzog, Switerzland
Elisabeth Bühlmann Herzog has had an impressive career as a Holistic Information Governance Expert and Project Manager in her 22 years of working in the field of archiving and records management. She has a background education in business history, history of techniques, records management, and archives preservation. /p>
Since 2018, Elisabeth became a freelancer and created her own company. Being the Founder of Alp’info, she plays a major role in facilitating records management and information governance for small and medium enterprises. Her experience in project management and running a local journal, Le Cotterg.ch, has allowed her to establish an association called Atout sel, which is a local exchange trading system.
Before her current role, Elisabeth worked at Mileva AI, Fontis International GmbH -Iron Mountain Incorporated, and Philip Morris International. Preceding these positions, she occupied several archiving and records-managing related roles at various establishments such as UEFA, Serono International S.A., GICHD, GCom Group, CERN, etc.
In her spare time, Elisabeth enjoys hiking, cross-country skiing, and sharing her professional expertise through publishing, teaching, and mentoring. Her enthusiastic nature and love for disseminating knowledge make her a great Mentor.
A multipotentialite such as Elisabeth is extremely inspiring as she encourages young professionals to seek deeper interests and creative pursuits in life. Her engagement with numerous extracurricular activities is another way to motivate her mentees to optimize their time by employing their academic backgrounds for bettering their skills and competencies.
Finally, Elisabeth’s remarkable curriculum and skillsets are an intellectual wealth to be esteemed in archiving and records management within the private and international sectors.
Mentee: Gaëlle Stephan, Lebanon