Kuala Lumpur, 6 July 2023: The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) welcomes José Roberto Montenegro Baide and Anne Rosenbarger as the Co-Chairs of its Board of Governors (BoG).
José Roberto is the President of AgroAmerica Tropical Oil Holding Corporation, a producer, manufacturer, and distributor of sustainable palm oil. Effective 1 July 2023, José succeeds Carl Bek-Nielsen of United Plantations Bhd who has served as Co-Chair to the RSPO BoG since 2013. Carl sits on the BoG as a representative of the Malaysian Growers.
“The RSPO is grateful to Carl for helping shape what the RSPO partnership is today. He has been instrumental in bringing our different constituencies together in a common purpose. We count on his continued contribution as a substantive member of the Board,” said RSPO chief executive officer, Joseph D’Cruz.
“Representing growers from the other side of the world, we look forward to working with José as our new Co-Chair as we chart our path forward as a leading global sustainability organisation. It is a privilege for RSPO to have leaders on our Board who together bring decades of experience from a diversity of perspectives” he added.
Joining José Roberto as a re-elected Co-Chair is Anne Rosenbarger of World Resources Institute (WRI), representing the Environmental NGO constituency. Anne is the Global Engagement Manager of Commodities and Finance at WRI and has served as Co-Chair of the RSPO BoG since 2018.
About José
Jose Roberto leads AgroAmerica Tropical Oil and supports the C-Suite executives in developing, implementing, and executing the strategic business plan. He works in the field and focuses strongly on sustainability. He has extensive experience in crop production, estate administration, financing, and investing in agricultural production. His food industry expertise spans the entire production and distribution processes.
Before joining AgroAmerica, he worked as a Financial Analyst at Standard Fruit in Honduras (DOLE) and as a Country Manager for fifteen years at Latin American Agribusiness Development Corporation (LAAD), financing agricultural and agribusiness activities in LATAM. During his time at LAAD, he managed the portfolio in most of the countries in Central America, including Belize. Jose Roberto holds a BSc in Agriculture from the prestigious Zamorano University and an MBA in Finance and Natural Resource Management from INCAE Business School. He has finished executive development programs concentrating on leadership, strategy development, and corporate social responsibility at Harvard Business School, INCAE, and the Kellogg School of Management.
Since 2016, he has served as a member of the Board of Directors of RSPO. Additionally, he is the current Co-Chair of the Consultative Group for Latin America and a member of the Emissions Reduction Working Group, both of RSPO.
About Anne
Anne has been based with WRI in Indonesia since 2010, working to address the links between commodity supply chains and land use change. Her primary focus is on engaging with and aligning a diverse group of stakeholders to identify, develop, and implement strategic interventions that address sustainability challenges through the use of scalable technological innovations and processes.
Anne has served on the RSPO Board since 2015 and is also a member of the RSPO Standards Standing Committee, Biodiversity and High Conservation Values Working Group and 2nd Compensation Task Force.
Prior to joining WRI, Anne conducted research on a range of topics related to tropical ecology and community based forestry management. She received her Master’s degree from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University.
About RSPO:
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 with the objective of promoting the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders. RSPO is a not-for-profit, international, membership organisation that unites stakeholders from the different sectors of the palm oil industry including oil palm producers, palm oil processors or traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors, environmental or nature conservation NGOs, and social or developmental NGOs.
This multi-stakeholder representation is mirrored in the governance structure of RSPO such that seats in the Board of Governors, Steering Committees and Working Groups are fairly allocated to each sector. In this way, RSPO lives out the philosophy of the “roundtable” by giving equal rights to each stakeholder group, facilitating traditionally adversarial stakeholders in working together to reach decisions by consensus, and achieving RSPO’s shared vision of making sustainable palm oil the norm.
The seat of the association is in Zurich, Switzerland, while the secretariat is currently based in Kuala Lumpur with satellite offices in Jakarta, London, Zoetermeer, Beijing, Bogotá and New York.
For further information, kindly contact:
| Zeeneeshri Ramadass APAC Communications Manager +6017-6571527 |
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