Structure

Bo works for Agro Eco – Louis Bolk Institute, an independent research-advisory-development organisation. He has 30 years’ experience in organic agriculture in all aspects: primary production, producer organisation, value chain development, conversion & business planning, marketing, organic integrity. He has assisted in the development of over 100 value chains in Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and since 1995 mainly Africa. He wrote the Organic Business Guide on developing sustainable value chains with smallholder farmers. His organisation also works with Rainforest Alliance/UTZ besides organic. Bo is involved in the accreditation of certifiers to the MSC, FSC, ASC and RSPO standards. He is a founder of the Anti-Fraud Initiative and a Director for the Alliance for Organic Integrity.

Dorota has an MSc in horticulture and has spent all her working life committed to organic farming. She is currently the President of the Board and Director of Certification of the certification body Bioekspert Ltd. in Poland. She takes an active role in the development of the organic rules in Europe through her role as member of the IFOAM EU Group since 2008 and more recently as its Vice President. She worked for the Association of Organic Producers in Poland (Ekoland) between 1989 and 2002 and is currently a member of the Monitoring Committee for Rural Development.

Jochen Neuendorff works since 1989 as an auditor and has a wide experience in organic inspection and certification as well as in certification programs for food and feed safety. He is Managing Director of GfRS, a control body based in Göttingen, Germany, and also works as an assessor for different accreditation bodies in third countries. He coordinates a number of research projects dealing with efficiency and effectiveness of organic certification, actually the EU-wide Leonardo-project IRM-Organic for the training of organic inspectors in improved risk management.

Joyce has been involved in organic agriculture since 1977 when she first started farming vegetables organically. Since that time, she has undertaken work as an organic inspector, a trainer, been involved in policy development in organic certification and undertaken internal audits of organic certification bodies and is currently chair of the International Organic Inspectors Association (IOIA) Ethics Committee.

Julia has worked for many years as a certification specialist, evaluating records of organic operators based on various international standards of organic certification, and is an organic inspector. Her knowledge of the implementation and evaluation of compliance of different international organic certification regulations covers a wide range of areas including production of organic crops, organic livestock and processing of organic products. Julia has also provided a number of advanced training courses on organic practices, management and control systems.

Katharina is a sustainable textile expert with years of experience building certification systems, conducting audits, making certification decisions, and offering training and consultancy services to textile producers, traders, and retailers and certification bodies. Involved in the initiation and development of the GOTS – Global Organic Textile Standard, Founder of ‘It fits’ a textile consultancy, Katharina also publishes articles in the Organic Textile Journal and has written a number of reports providing insight and advice on organic textile standards, sustainability, future viability, environmental friendliness and social compatibility.

Roberto has worked since 1992 with the certification body CCPB SRL of Bologna, Italy where he now holds the position of Manager of the Technical Department and Quality Assurance. He has a degree in Agriculture and is qualified as an auditor of quality management systems and environmental management systems. In his career he has worked as an organic inspector in many countries and as a Quality Manager and as Technical Manager working with various international organic norms including that of Europe, the USA and Japan. In 2006 he was appointed Coordinator of the Technical Committee of the National Federation for Organic Agriculture in Italy (Federbio). He is a member of the IFOAM Standard Requirements Committee since 2010 and a member of the IFOAM Accreditation Requirements Committee since 2012.

Mrs. Sahana holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Science and has conducted extensive research on impacts of climate change due to Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) moving on to developing practical guidelines and formulating a comprehensive policy on Non-timber forest products (NTFP). Sahana’s experience as a Lead Assessor in Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS), GHG/ ISO 14064-2 and conducting accreditation assessments on Conformity Assessment Bodies combined with working within the arena of safeguarding impartiality & principles of the accreditation system makes her a valued addition to the IOAS accreditation committee.

Vitoon Panyakul has been working with the Thai organic movement since 1991. As an organic pioneer, he helped to establish several organisations active in organic agriculture promotion like the Green Net Cooperative (organic and fair trade distributor and exporter), the Earth Net Foundation (non-profit foundation working to support small-scale farmers for organic conversion in Asia region), the Organic Agriculture Certification Thailand (organic certification body active in southeast Asia region), and the Thai Organic Trader Association.