IFU welcomes new members in its Executive Board

The IFU (International Fruit and Vegetable Juice Association) held elections during their virtual General Assembly in October. Not only have the members unanimously voted for Kees Cools as new President and Demir Sarman as Vice President, but also welcomed new regional representatives in their Executive Committee.

IFU Executives can stay on the board for two three year terms, and in 2020, the second term has ended for Dirk Lansbergen as President, Kees Cools as Vice President, treasurer Klaus Heitlinger and the regional representatives Demir Sarman (Eurasia and South Eastern Europe), Monther Alharthi and Yuval Katzir (Middle East and Africa) and Peter Gates (Oceania).

Within the last six  years, Dirk Lansbergen, founder of Juice Alliance, has reinvigorated the IFU and led the association into very successful times by developing and following his “core and more” initiative. The association and its members would like to express their gratitude for all the work he has done and how he has inspired the Board. Kees Cools, former Vice President, is proud to take the role of President from Dirk.

Kees is well known within the juice industry as long standing Executive Director of the Doehler Group, he is looking forward to further internationalize and professionalize the IFU and to grow its role as the global representative of the industry. The role of Vice President is filled by Demir Sarman, Agribusiness, Energy and Industry Group President at Anadolu Grubu and former Managing Director and CEO of Anadolu Etap. Both have decades of experience within the juice industry and great networking possibilities within the food and beverage sector.

Peter Gates from the Australian Beverage Council and Managing Director of Doehler Australia/New Zealand has taken over the role of treasurer, while IFU also welcomed “new arrivals” to the Executive Committee: The new position as representative for Africa was taken by Slim Othmani, Chairman of NCA-Rouiba and active part of the Association of Algerian Beverage Producers (APAB), while Tatiana Paula de Campos, International Relations Manager at CitrusBR, will represent South America.

There have been some changes in the IFU Commissions, too: Dr. David Hammond, fruit juice authenticity expert at Eurofins and former vice chair of the Methods of Analysis Commission was confirmed as new chair of the Legislation Commission and Margarita Maier, Director at Storyhaus, was elected as new chair of the Marketing Commission.

IFU thanks the new, but of course also the “old” members of the Executive Board for their ongoing voluntary support of the fruit and vegetable juice industry.