The International Council of Shopping Centers has more than trebled its membership in Europe since Mike Morrissey took the helm in 2012.

The International Council of Shopping Centers has more than trebled its membership in Europe since Mike Morrissey took the helm in 2012.

ICSC Europe is expanding fast. Since Mike Morrissey took the helm as managing director in 2012, the organisation has seen its membership mushroom to over 6,500 from 1,900. And the numbers continue to grow as new national councils across the continent sign up. In the past two years, eight national councils from the UK, Germany, France, Italy, the Nordics, Austria, Switzerland and Turkey have joined and the Dutch council is due to sign at the ICSC conference in Istanbul in early April, Morrissey said in an interview with PropertyEU. ‘Collaboration with the national councils is important to our strategy. The message that we want to get across is that both the national councils and ICSC Europe point in the same direction, we don’t compete with each other. Their focus is national whereas we represents cross-border interests. The national councils offer ICSC membership as a benefit to their members and we collaborate with them. We’re partners now.’

ICSC is also more than just a European network, Morrissey added. ‘ICSC clearly is a global network. If you’re an investor, retailer, developer, owner or agent, we can connect you with people in our offices, not just in your own country or region, but anywhere in the world. Recently we have been getting more questions about Latin America, Sub-Sahara Africa and India. It’s great to see how we can help connect people with experts in these countries and regions. That is one of ICSC’s strengths.’ The growth of ICSC Europe is also changing the global organisation, Morrissey noted. ‘The North American membership of ICSC has always been strong, but now over 20% of ICSC’s members are outside the United States and 10% are in Europe. The European voice is now really being heard. ICSC members and staff who are not based in North America are helping shape the organisation and that will continue given that the growth is coming from other parts of the world.’

Click on the link for the full interview with Mike Morrissey