ofi appoints chief sustainability officer

These platforms include cocoa, coffee, dairy, nuts and spices, which stretch across approximately 50 countries.

Poppel will report directly to CEO A. Shekhar and act as a member of the corporate leadership team. 

His past experience 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.

Poppel then moved internally to lead the growth of the sustainability insights management system AtSource. Most recently, he was seconded by Olam Group as a co-founder of the wider industry led sustainability measurement digital platform TRACT. 

In this latest position, Poppel will be focusing on addressing the big challenges faced by the food sector, including farmer poverty, deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions. This will include strengthening ofi’s strategy and goals to achieve positive outcomes with its partners (from farmers to customers and the wider eco-system), alongside anticipating and preparing for regulatory changes, and driving transparent and robust reporting.

Commenting on the appointment, Shekhar said Poppel will bring the perfect mix of strategic vision, business acumen and commercial leadership to inspire impactful change at the company.

Poppel added: “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 programmes 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.”​