AFCEA Europe Employee Celebrates 40th ‘Workaversary’
Pia Sementilli joined the AFCEA Europe office in 1984 as an executive secretary, just a year after graduating. Now as the director of European Operations, she celebrates 40 years with the organization.
“[Pia] is the ultimate professional,” Nancy Temple, vice president of AFCEA International told SIGNAL Media. “She has witnessed many organizational changes and journeyed through each one with proficiency and grace.”
Having joined the team close to the office’s inception in 1979, Sementilli recalls the beginning stages of the association’s growth. “When I joined AFCEA, mailing labels were typed one by one on an electronic typewriter, so it was just as well we didn’t have thousands of members in Europe at that time,” she shared.
AFCEA’s European office represents the association with NATO and the European Union. Today, it comprises about 3,000 members and 300 corporations.
When asked what advice she’d give to those starting their careers, Sementilli has her own secrets to success:
- Have confidence in yourself and your work;
- Be passionate and motivated about the job;
- Set ambitious goals for yourself;
- And be a team player.
“Pia Sementilli is an outstanding personality, a sort of staff you find hardly nowadays” wrote AFCEA Europe General Manager Erich Staudacher. “Her accuracy and diligence in staff works, in particular with finances, and her caring for staff members has impressed me all the years [I’ve worked] with her,” he stated.
“We are blessed to have her within our ranks!”
Huge congratulations and thank you to Pia Sementilli, on behalf of AFCEA International.
