ofi has announced Roel van Poppel as its Chief Sustainability Officer. He will take responsibility for scaling ofi’s ability to drive positive impact across its five leading product platforms — cocoa, coffee, dairy, nuts, and spices, with operations. He will report directly to CEO A. Shekhar and be a member of the Corporate Leadership Team.
“It’s a privilege to lead the ofi Sustainability team with its depth of expertise and relentless commitment. My mission is to grow the reach of ofi’s programs even further, collaborating with customers and suppliers on the ground to drive positive impact. Together, we will ignite greater opportunities and game-changing outcomes for ofi and our partners,” says van Poppel.
Roel is an industry leader with extensive experience across both ingredients and sustainability. This includes senior leadership roles at Cargill and Wild Flavors before joining ofi’s parent company Olam Group in 2013 as the Global Commercial Lead for its spices business. He then moved internally to lead the growth of the award-winning sustainability insights management system AtSource. Most recently, Roel was seconded by Olam Group as a co-founder of the wider industry led sustainability measurement digital platform TRACT.
Along with his leadership team, Roel will bring further focus to ofi’s experience and expertise in addressing the multiple social and environmental challenges in food supply chains such as farmer poverty, deforestation, and greenhouse gas emissions.
“Sustainability sits at the heart of ofi’s business model so that we can partner with customers who want their products to benefit farmers and the planet. Roel brings the perfect mix of strategic vision, business acumen and commercial leadership to inspire the whole of ofi to continually deliver on our purpose to Be the Change for Good Food and a Healthy Future,” says Shekhar.
For more information, visit ofi.com
