Governance
GCP’s governance process is a multi-stakeholder structure which represents all relevant stakeholder groups directly involved in the coffee supply chain, namely producer organizations, coffee trade and industry and civil society organizations.
GCP Board
The Board is the operational, political and strategic decision making body of the Global Coffee Platform, acting under the overall mandate and guidance established by the Membership Assembly. Its composition reflects the open, inclusive and multi-stakeholder character of the Global Coffee Platform.
The GCP Board consists of up to 16 seats filled by individuals within the GCP Membership. 13 seats are elected by the entire GCP Membership, for a 3-year term, with options for re-election:
4
Four Board seats
for coffee producer representatives;
2
Two seats
for trade representatives;
4
Four seats
for coffee industry representatives (with three seats for roasters, thereof at least one representing small/ mediums sized companies, and one for retailers)
3
Three seats
for Civil Society organizations.
The GCP Board guides the strategic direction of the organization and oversees and endorses the annual work plans and budgets. It comes together at least three times a year and is supported by four sub-committees: Nominations and Elections Committee, Finance Committee, HR Committee, and Technical Committee.
Click on the photos to learn more about GCP Board Members
Producer
Moenardji Soedargo
Individual Member
Moenardji Soedargo
Individual Member
Moenardji Soedargo is currently Vice President & Chief Operating Officer at PT Aneka Coffee Industry (ACI), one of the most reputable producers of bulk instant coffee ´liquid extract in Indonesia.
Prior to this role Moenardji served as Director of PT Prasidha Aneka Niaga (PAN) which has been an active exporter of Robusta beans through its branch unit in Bandar Lampung.
Moenardji also gained extensive experience and knowledge of the coffee sector as Chairman of the Sustainable Coffee Platform Indonesia (SCOPI) from 2015 until 2018 and as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of SCOPI from 2018 until 2021.
In addition, he has been supporting GAEKI (Indonesia Coffee Exporter Association) in an advisory role since 2011 and serves as an active member of the Indonesian delegation in the International Coffee Organization (ICO) representing the Indonesian Private Sector.
Rafael Furtado Fonseca
Coomap/Brazilian Coffee Producers Council (CNC)
Rafael Furtado Fonseca
Coomap/Brazilian Coffee Producers Council (CNC)
Rafael Furtado Fonseca is Business Manager/Communication at Coomap. In this role he has worked to establish a direct link between small co-ops and international buyers. Since then direct exports have increased exponentially. He has also conducted a series of projects linked to sustainability, like improving the Quality of the Coffee produced by the co-op members, teaching English for members’ children and grandchildren, expanding growers awareness toward the importance of developing a professional approach of the coffee business and women empowerment. Rafael believes that co-ops might have a key role regarding empowering growers by means of education and fair commercialization conditions.
Dr Joseph K. Kimemia
Individual Member
Dr Joseph K. Kimemia
Individual Member
Dr. Joseph K. Kimemia is currently working with Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) as a Chief Research Officer and the Director, Planning, Performance Management and Quality Control. He holds a PhD in Crop Science from University of Nairobi, an MSc Agronomy from Andra Pradesh Agricultural University/International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and a BSC Agriculture from the University of Nairobi. He has attended many local and international courses on research and research management.
At his present job at KALRO he is in charge of planning performance management and strategy development. He has worked at Coffee Research Foundation for over 30 years, 10 of which he was the CEO/Director of Research. Previously Dr. Kimemia had worked as a Farming Systems Agronomist in the arid and semi-arid lands of ASAL of Kenya for six years and as Agronomist for High Altitude maize program in Kenya for two years. He carried out research in farming systems for dry lands of Kenya and introduced the whole farm approach to research for the dry lands. In coffee, he focused his research on a cropping system approach in areas of intercropping, shade studies, organic production, and production systems for coffee in new areas and adaptation for climate change. He has published extensively and undertaken many consultancies nationally and internationally. He has been a board member of the African Fine Coffee Association (AFCA), Global Coffee Platform (GCP), Kenya Coffee Producers Association (KCPA) and Egaads Co. Ltd, a coffee farming company in Kenya. Dr Kimemia is a key founder member of the Kenya Coffee Platform (Sauti ya Kahawa) where he is currently the chairman. Dr. Kimemia has been decorated by the Government of Kenya with a Head of State Commendation (HSC) and Moran of the Burning Spear (MBS) for his contribution to the development of the coffee sector in the country.
Trade
Deepak Kaul
olam food ingredients (ofi)
Deepak Kaul
olam food ingredients (ofi)
Deepak Kaul is the SVP and Head EMEA and India, Global Head Coffee Sustainability and Technology at ofi, a global leader in natural and sustainable food ingredients. He is responsible for the strategic direction and execution of the coffee business across Europe, Middle East, Africa, and India, as well as the global sustainability and technology initiatives for the coffee vertical. He has over 23 years of experience in the international coffee trade, with a proven track record of delivering profitable growth, managing complex supply chains, and driving innovation and sustainability in the coffee sector.
Prior to moving to his current role based out of Geneva, Switzerland, Deepak was based in Singapore and led the Coffee business for Africa and Europe, where he oversaw the entire supply chain from plantations to marketing, and managed the trade book and the marketing teams across region. He has a strong background in international business, business planning, and strategy, with an MBA and an Engineering degree from top schools in India.
Deepak is passionate about creating value for the customers, farmers, and shareholders of ofi, while advancing the social and environmental impact of the coffee industry. He brings diverse perspectives and experiences to the ofi leadership team, and he is committed to fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and innovation.
Teddy Esteve
ECOM Agroindustrial Corp
Teddy Esteve
ECOM Agroindustrial Corp
Teddy Esteve was born in the US and raised in Lausanne, Switzerland. He then moved to Mexico where he is still living with his family. He has been with ECOM Agroindustrial Corp. for many years, close to all his work life.
ECOM Agroindustrial Corp. is a 171 year old leading global commodity merchant and sustainable supply chain management company with its roots in Barcelona, Spain. ECOM focuses primarily on coffee, cotton, and cocoa, as well as participating in selected other agricultural product markets.
Teddy Esteve has been involved in most aspects of the business globally. He is also a proud coffee farmer and a Board Member of various companies in the food and ag business. Moreover, he co-founded a non-dairy dairy company and a Farm-to-Face cosmetic company.
Industry
Daniele Buzzetti
Nestlé
Daniele is an Italian and Swiss citizen. He is currently based in Switzerland, having lived in 6 countries, and worked on the field across Asia, Africa, Latin America.
As Head of Strategy & ESG at Nestlé Coffee Brands, he spearheads Coffee strategic initiatives while championing ESG practices.
Daniele’s passion for coffee runs deep, with over a decade of experience in the sector. His firsthand insights from living in coffee regions, have shaped his beliefs in creating shared value and transform coffee in a force for good, empowering farmers communities, enhancing livelihoods and sustainable development.
Matt Smith
Westrock Coffee
Matt Smith
Westrock Coffee
Matt Smith serves as an Executive Vice President, Commodities and Sustainability at Westrock Coffee, with focus in the areas of Sustainability and commodity procurement and quality assurance. In this role he has responsibility for delivering on our goal of 100% Responsibly Sourced coffee and tea by 2025, while continuing to feed our facilities based in the U.S. and Malaysia with ~150m pounds of green coffee and ~25m pounds of tea annually.
Prior to returning to work in our U.S. roasting operations he was the President and CEO of Westrock East Africa since 2018, Chief Operating Officer of Falcon Coffees Limited from 2014 through 2017, and General Manager of Rwanda Trading Company from 2009 – 2014 where he oversaw its growth from a start-up coffee exporter to a respected national player that is responsible for an incremental $100 million earned by the farmers of Rwanda.
Nadia Hoarau-Mwaura
JDE Peet’s
Nadia Hoarau-Mwaura
JDE Peet’s
Nadia Hoarau-Mwaura is the Sustainability Director at Jacobs Douwe Egberts, tasked with the strategy and execution of the responsible sourcing program – JDE Common Grounds. In this role she works closely across the different functions from Procurement, Marketing, Sales and R&D as well as managing strategic partnerships and relations in the public and private sector.
Nadia has more than 15 years of experience in sustainable development, working across different commodities including cocoa, tea, coffee. She joined JDE in 2015, having worked with Mondelez International in the coffee division before that. Prior to this she worked with Fairtrade International for 10 years focusing her expertise on building producer support programs in Africa Middle East and Asia Pacific.
Christien Parrott
Mother Parkers Tea and Coffee
Christien Parrott
Mother Parkers Tea and Coffee
Christien Parrott is the Director of Sustainability, Strategy and Implementation at Mother Parkers Tea & Coffee. Christien is a dynamic and passionate leader in sustainability and has led development of the corporate climate action and sustainable sourcing program for Mother Parkers. This is with a focus on setting climate commitments and goals with science-based targets, enhancing the sustainability of the Mother Parkers’ supply chains, and strengthening the resilience of communities and the wellbeing of producers at origin. These initiatives will drive significant and lasting positive impacts to environmental, social and governance aspects of sustainability for Mother Parkers.
Christien serves on the Board of Directors of the Global Coffee Platform (GCP) and has diverse experience in sales, project management and coffee commodities. This has allowed her to develop a unique perspective when it comes to capturing the business and human stories behind each cup of coffee and tea. Christien is also a CQI-certified coffee Q-Arabica Grader. Outside of the office, Christien is an alpine ski enthusiast, former alpine ski racing coach that now enjoys fair-weather skiing with a mountain-side beverage of choice!
Civil Society
Michelle Deugd
Rainforest Alliance
Michelle Deugd
Rainforest Alliance
Michelle Deugd, graduated at Wageningen University, with more than 24 years of experience, of which 12 years in Rainforest Alliance, in Sustainable Agriculture in Latin America, Africa and Asia. As Sector Lead Coffee she provides strategic direction to Rainforest Alliance’s coffee work globally, with the objective to positively contribute to the transformation of the sector, the livelihoods of coffee producers and workers and the environment that surrounds them.
During the last twelve years she has worked with the Rainforest Alliance where she has led RA´s agriculture portfolio globally, the development of regional and sector strategies and their implementation. She has managed a range of coffee projects in Latin America, Asia and Africa, focused at the development of Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee supply at origin, strengthening the sustainability of certified farm and led the roll out of RA´s 2017 certification program to producers globally.
Bambi Semroc
Conservation International
Bambi Semroc
Conservation International
Bambi Semroc is Senior Vice President of the Center for Sustainable Lands and Waters at Conservation International. The Center brings together key elements of sustainable production, water, incentives, and sustainability in priority landscapes and seascapes. She leads the Sustainable Coffee Challenge, a sector-wide effort to make coffee the world’s first sustainable agricultural products.
Ms. Semroc has been at Conservation International for more than 15 years, always focusing on sustainable agriculture. She engages leading retailers and consumer goods companies on sustainable agriculture programs designed to maintain critical natural capital, mitigate climate change, and increase the resiliency of farmers to shocks while maintaining productivity. Ms. Semroc works to ensure that these companies have the information and tools necessary to integrate natural capital and ecosystem service considerations into decision-making processes. Throughout this time, she has worked in collaboration with companies such as Starbucks Coffee Company, Walmart, McDonald’s, Nestlé, and The Coca-Cola Company.
Prior to Conservation International, Ms. Semroc worked as Peace Corps Volunteer in northern Togo. She holds a master’s degree in International Development from American University and a bachelor’s degree in English and French from Indiana University.
Andrea Olivar
Solidaridad
Andrea Olivar
Solidaridad
Andrea Olivar is an expert in sustainability and has been working in the coffee sector for over 15 years. Andrea is the Director for Strategy and Quality for Solidaridad in Latin America. Previous to that, she served as Solidaridad’s Global Manager for Coffee, Country Manager for Colombia and as Head of the Sustainable Trade Platform, a national sustainability platform that was facilitated by Solidaridad since 2012.
Andrea also worked for a period of six years as Head of the Coffee Programme at Twin Trading. She started her career at Colombian Agency for the promotion of exports (ProColombia), followed by positions at the Fairtrade Foundation and Agrofair in London.
Additional Seats
Ric Rhinehart
IDH the sustainable trade initiative
Ric Rhinehart
IDH the sustainable trade initiative
Ric Rhinehart has been involved in the coffee and tea sectors for more than three decades. He has held various senior leadership roles with private enterprises as well as trade groups. Ric served as CEO of the Specialty Coffee Association until the end of 2019. Furthermore, he served for over a decade as Executive Director of SCAA, as a founding director of World Coffee Research, as a Director at the Coffee Quality Institute, as a delegate to the ICO Private Sector Consultative Board, and as a Director at the COSA.
In 2021 Ric joined IDH the sustainable trade initiative as Strategy Director Agri-commodities. with the Agri-commodities Business Unit, focusing on the global convening activities in the coffee sector.
Karel W. Valken
Rabobank, GCP Vice Board Chair
Karel W. Valken
Rabobank, GCP Vice Board Chair
In this capacity as EVP, Global Head Agri Commodities at Rabobank Karel Valken is responsible for their TCF Agri Units in 13 countries. Prior to joining Rabobank International in 2006, he was a Board Member of Nidera Handelscompagnie B.V., a Dutch-Argentinean international processing and trading company in grains and oilseeds from 1996-2006.
He started his career in 1983 at Mees & Hope/MeesPierson (now ABNAMRO) and spend 8 years as the MD of their New York office. From 1989-1996 he was active in financing a wide range of soft and hard commodities and has extensive experience in hemispheres ranging from Europe, the CIS, Asia and the Americas.
He has a degree at the Hogere Economische School of Amsterdam and served as an officer in the Dutch Army after his studies. In addition to his present responsibilities he is also a Board Member of Progreso Foundation active in coffee.
Adriana Mejía Cuartas
Individual Member, GCP Board Chair
Adriana Mejía Cuartas
Individual Member, GCP Board Chair
Founder of Herencia VL, Adriana Mejía Cuartas is a seasoned leader in sustainability and international business. With a background in the Colombian coffee industry, including serving as a former director for the National Federation of Colombian Coffee Growers in Europe and a board member of UTZ-Rainforest Alliance, she has honed her skills as a strategic thinker and action enabler.
Mejía focuses on making meaningful connections and sparking innovation by asking the right questions. As a fourth-generation coffee grower herself, she brings a unique blend of global expertise and local insights to every project. Whether it’s navigating complex value chains or managing risk, Mejía helps her clients drive positive change while boosting their brand reputation and equity.
Career facts: Mejía was the first woman nominated for the position of Chief Executive Officer of the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia and later became the first woman elected to the Board of Directors of UTZ Certified, now known as Rainforest Alliance – UTZ.
In addition to her experience in the coffee industry, Mejía has also played a significant role in other supply chains such as cacao and palm oil. Her extensive global engagement and experience across multiple commodities have enabled her with a comprehensive understanding of global trade dynamics and sustainable supply chain management. Furthermore, Mejía’s passion for private diplomacy, lobbying, and policy-making drives her to actively engage with stakeholders to effect positive change.
Since 2024, Mejía has served as the GCP Board Chair.
Observer Seats
Carlos Brando
Individual Member
Carlos Brando
Individual Member
Carlos Brando is an engineer who attended the SPURS and PhD programs at MIT. His company P&A’s as well as his own long and diversified experience in the coffee sector have led them to work as consultants for the International Coffee Organization, the World Bank, the Sustainable Trade Initiative, the Global Coffee Platform, the World Cocoa Foundation and many other companies and institutions. They have coordinated coffee projects in more than 50 producing countries across five continents, including all the main coffee growing areas of Brazil. A frequent speaker at leading international coffee events, Carlos has contributed chapters to several coffee books, including Nespresso’s recent “The Craft and Science of Coffee”.
He has sat on the boards of UTZ and Ipanema Coffees, is a member of the Coffee Quality Institute’s Board of Trustees and in 2017 Carlos received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the African Fine Coffees Association. Carlos served as GCP’s Board Chair for six years and in his role as Immediate Past Chair, he will play a supporting role to both the new chair and the board.
Vanúsia Nogueira
Executive Director, International Coffee Organization
Vanúsia Nogueira
Executive Director, International Coffee Organization
Vanúsia Nogueira comes from a family of coffee producers, and started her career at PwC Consulting, where she was a partner and worked for 15 years. She started working directly with coffee in 2002, always focusing on niche markets. She served as executive director at BSCA from 2007 through April 2022 and took over as Executive Director at the International Coffee Organization in May 2022. Vanúsia holds a PhD in Administration/Marketing from Rosario National University in Argentina, a BS in Systems Engineering and Administration from Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RJ) and MBAs and post-MBA focusing on Management, Marketing and Advanced Project Management from Fundação Getulio Vargas-Rio de Janeiro (FGV-RJ).
Executive Team
GCP’s Senior Management Team directs the organization’s day-to-day activities around the world.
Annette Pensel
Executive Director
Annette Pensel
Executive Director
Annette Pensel is Executive Director of the Global Coffee Platform (GCP), an inclusive, multi-stakeholder membership association to advance coffee sustainability. Together with GCP Members, its Country Platforms and partners the organization is building a specific, actionable framework for closing the living income gap by at least 25% for 1 million smallholder farmers through holistic support that advances sustainable coffee production, climate adaptation and mitigation, and worker well-being.
Annette believes in the power of “glocal” collaboration to overcome systemic sustainability challenges: business as usual is not enough to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
She brings more than 20 years of experience in the international coffee sector and in the fields of development cooperation, including corporate sustainability, public-private partnerships and programs, capacity building and voluntary sustainability standards.
Annette has lived and worked in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and Europe, driving successful sustainability programs in agricultural sectors with leading companies, especially in coffee. Her previous roles include senior positions at the 4C Association, where she was responsible for building the 4C Association’s network, structures and services at origin and driving innovation. Creating and expanding partnerships to scale positive impacts of sustainable coffee, she has established productive relationships with key stakeholders ranging from coffee growers to private sector companies, NGO and donor agencies, and government representatives.
Annette graduated in Economics, Political Science and Latin American studies from the University of Cologne (Germany) and Tucuman (Argentina). She speaks German, English, Spanish and Portuguese and is based at the GCP Secretariat in Bonn, Germany.
Thomas Müller-Bardey
Finance & Operations Director
Thomas Müller-Bardey
Finance & Operations Director
Thomas is responsible for managing the Global Coffee Platform’s (GCP) finance systems and processes, including accounting, planning and controlling. He is also responsible for membership administration.
Thomas holds several certificates in accounting, was professionally active in the financial communications business in the past, and holds a university degree in the field of Communications Theory from the University of Cologne (Germany). Thomas speaks German and English and is based in Bonn, Germany.
Competition law, policies and code
GCP has committed to the concept of pre-competitive collaboration. GCP Members are asked to strictly adhere to its competition law policy at all times. No discussions of agreements or concerted actions that may restrain competition are allowed. This prohibition includes discussions of current or future prices, margins, discounts, the timing of price changes, costs, capacities, customers, suppliers, product and marketing plans, sales projections, credit terms, or other competitively sensitive information relating to your business.
