Executive Committee
Ernesto A. Brovelli Ph.D. - President
Senior Manager, Sustainable Agriculture - The Coca-Cola Company
Dr. Ernesto Brovelli is the Senior Manager of Sustainable Agriculture at The Coca-Cola Company Office of Sustainability. In this role, he spearheads a number of sustainable agriculture initiatives within the Company, including the development of a sustainable sourcing strategy and the establishment of international pilot projects.
Ernesto holds five patents related to the industrial use of plants and has been awarded two corporate creativity recognitions. He has authored more than 40 publications and is a frequent speaker at conferences and symposia. Dr. Brovelli holds degrees in Agronomy, Horticulture and Food Science and is a former Rotary Foundation and Japan International Cooperation Agency scholar.
In May 2012, Dr. Brovelli was elected president of SAI (Sustainable Agriculture Initiative) Platform. He also serves on the World Economic Forum's 'New Vision for Agriculture' board, on the board of overseers for Crummer School of Business, and as an Ad Honorem professor at the University of Florida’s Department of Horticultural Sciences.
Vincent Crasnier - Vice President
Environment Director - Danone
Vincent Cranier, since November 2010 Environment Director for Danone, served since 2007 as Sourcing & Supplier Development (Purchasing) Director Evian Volvic World (member of Management Committee). He was Sourcing & Supplier Development Services Groupe Danone (2006-2007), Sourcing & Supplier Development Packaging Director Worldwide for Waters Division (2002-2006) and Sourcing & Supplier Development Director Paper & Board Worldwide Groupe Danone (2001-2002).
Vincent Cranier held various Purchasing management positions with Rhodia including Global Sourcing Manager for Petrochemicals (France) and Home Personal Care & Ingredients (USA). He was also Marketing & Sales Manager with Kermel Inc. (Joint Venture between Rhône-Poulenc & Amoco) in Canada.
Vincent Cranier graduated from both Reims Business School (France) and Middlesex Business School (London, UK).
Vincent Cranier is married and has three children.
Carol S. Kitchen - Treasurer
Senior Vice President, General Manager Global Ingredients, - Land O’Lakes, Inc.
Carol Kitchen was named to her current position as Senior Vice President and General Manager, Global Ingredients in January 2012. Most recently, she was Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy Business Development and International. She has 20 years of cooperative experience, previously working as Vice President, business-to-business, for Land O’Lakes Purina Feed with responsibilities for Feed’s premix business, LabDiet®, Innovative Proteins and International Development.
Prior to joining Land O’Lakes, Carol Kitchen held roles in accounting at both GROWMARK Inc., a regional cooperative, and with Arthur Andersen & Company, an accounting firm based in Chicago. She is active in Women’s Leadership initiatives for the Greater Twin Cities United Way.
Carol Kitchen holds a master’s of Business Administration from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. She received her bachelor’s degree in Accountancy from the University of Illinois and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Ghislain J. Pelletier
Corporate Vice President Agriculture - McCain Foods Limited
Ghislain Pelletier is a Corporate Vice President for Agriculture with McCain Foods Limited. He obtained his B.Sc. in Agronomy from the Université Laval in 1982 and is a member of the New Brunswick Institute of Agrologists. He has served as a Director on the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform ExCo since April 2008 and the World Potato Congress Inc. board since April 2006.
Ghislain Pelletier was brought up on a potato farm in New Brunswick, Canada. He started his Professional Agrologist career with the New Brunswick Department of Agriculture in 1982 as a Potato Production Specialist. He joined McCain Foods in April 1991 as a potato agronomist in USA initially then transferred to Argentina from 1992 to 1996, where he conducted a feasibility study for supplying quality potatoes for a McCain factory in the MERCOSUR region.
Ghislain Pelletier returned to Florenceville, New Brunswick, Canada in 1996 as Senior Regional Agronomist with McCain Foods Canada. In 1998 he was appointed Director International Agriculture Projects managing potato procurement feasibility projects in several emerging market countries. He was subsequently appointed Corporate Vice President Agriculture for McCain Foods Limited in 2003 and in his current role leads McCain Foods worldwide agriculture strategies.
Frank van Ooijen
Corporate Director Sustainability & Communications - FrieslandCampina
Frank van Ooijen has almost 30 years of experience in Corporate Communication, Issue Management and Corporate Social Responsibility program management with a focus on the international agro-food and fast moving consumer goods sector.
In his business career he has fulfilled positions with Rabobank Group (VP Corporate Social Responsibility with the international vendor finance affiliate De Lage Landen), feed-to-food multinational Nutreco Holding (CSR Officer & Corporate Communication Director), international retailer Laurus (director CorpCom) and Unilever (various positions in global issues management and communications at the London and Rotterdam corporate centre).
Frank van Ooijen is a political scientist who started his career as a newspaper journalist before stepping over to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague to become a communications officer with a focus on Development Cooperation and Third World matters.
Frank van Ooijen studied Political Sciences & International Relations at the Radboud University in Nijmegen in the Netherlands, participated in a research program of the International Labour Office (ILO) in the informal sector in Mexico City, followed a post-doc in International Relations at the Clingendael Institute in The Hague and is a regular lecturer at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Frank van Ooijen is married and has three children.
Nathalie Ritchie
Head of Ethical Sourcing - Kraft Foods
Nathalie Ritchie, Head of Ethical Sourcing, is part of the Sustainability team within Kraft Foods with responsibility for ensuring that the business maintains responsible sourcing standards throughout the supply chain with a specific focus on sustainable agriculture.
Nathalie Ritchie joined the legacy Cadbury business in 1999, initially within the Procurement organisation covering a variety of roles including strategic sourcing, capability development and knowledge management. Since 2006 she has led a global ethical sourcing team ensuring ethical standards are implemented throughout the supply chain, both with suppliers and within Cadbury’s own manufacturing sites. Prior to this she worked in procurement for BAAplc.
Nathalie Ritchie also plays an active corporate membership role in SEDEX (Supplier Ethical Data Exchange) and AIM-Progress (the FMCG industry group for Responsible Sourcing) as well as being part of the Dairy, Arable crops and Water working groups in SAI-Platform.
Nathalie Ritchie has a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing and Management and is also a Member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply.
Dirk Jan de With
Vice President Procurement Ingredients & Sustainability - Unilever
Dirk Jan de With has worked at Unilever for 24 years, mainly in Supply Chain roles for Foods and HPC, in The Netherlands, Germany, Israel, Italy and Switzerland.
Early in his career he worked in an oils and fats refinery, set up marketing operations in Russia when the iron curtain fell and then created the first international Supply Chain Team for fish and poultry. Following this he managed the implementation of European Planning and Logistics and multilingual products in Ice Cream Europe. An exciting period in Israel followed where he has been running Ice Cream operations, HPC operations and the Bestfoods integration. In Rome he has built a passion for Customer Service in Ice Cream Europe whilst significantly reducing complexity in the Ice Cream portfolio. Then he managed the set up of the Unilever Supply Chain Company in Switzerland and rolled out one SAP and one way of working in Europe. End 2008 he became responsible for Procurement of all materials and services in Europe.
Since mid 2011 Dirk Jan de With assumed a global responsibility for Ingredients Procurement and the Sustainable Sourcing Agenda for all renewables. In addition he is responsible for Procurement Operations and Third Party Manufacturing in Europe.
His leisure time is spent with his wife and two teenage sons.
