Board of Directors
ISEAL’s Board of Directors meets twice annually.
Executive Committee
Rik Kutsch Lojenga grew up in the Netherlands, where he also earned a Master's degree in business and environmental economics. His long-term interest in environmental and development issues led him to spend part of his studies in Costa Rica, studying the environmental impact of the macro-economic policies of this biodiversity-rich country.
Following, Rik worked with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for over 10 years, where he was involved in the creation of the BioTrade Initiative, which coined the term 'biotrade'. A strong believer in the role that the private sector can play in sustainable development and biodiversity conservation, he helped to conceptualize the idea of the Union for Ethical BioTrade while at the UN. On 22 February 2008, the Union for Ethical BioTrade appointed Rik Kutsch Lojenga, as its Executive Director. Working closely with the Board of Ethical BioTrade, Rik has established the Union's offices in Geneva and has begun to roll out the Union's core services. Rik has been tasked to build-up the Union's membership base and reach out to private sector in both developing and developed countries.
Vice chair: Rochelle Zaid, Executive Director, Social Accountability Accreditation Services (SAAS)
Rochelle serves as the staff person on the SAAS Board of Directors, Accreditation Review Panel, and Accreditation Committee. Ms. Zaid is the top management and has overall authority and decision-making responsibility for the organization. Prior to joining the Accreditation Agency as Director in 1999, Ms. Zaid was an outsourcing manager for many years with Country Miss Inc. and was the project administrator for social accountability at Eileen Fisher. While at Eileen Fisher, she helped develop and implement the social accountability program and drafted a manual for suppliers. While at Eileen Fisher, Ms. Zaid served as a member of the SA8000 Advisory Board. Ms. Zaid received her degree from Brooklyn College.
Vice Chair: Andre de Freitas, Executive Director, Forest Stewardship Council
A forester by training, Andre Giacini de Freitas has extensive background in forest certification. Prior to his current role as FSC Executive Director, Mr. de Freitas served as FSC Head of Operations and FSC Head of Policy and Standards. Previously, he managed Imaflora (a Brazilian NGO and SmartWood affiliate), developed the social and environmental policy for Rabobank in Brazil, and worked as regional forest coordinator for forest workers unions in Latin America.
Other Board Members
Dr David Agnew is Standards Director at the Marine Stewardship Council
Prior to taking up his post at the MSC in 2011, David was Fisheries Director of the fisheries consultancy MRAG Ltd, Chairman of the MSC Technical Advisory Board, and Chairman of the Scientific Committee of CCAMLR. He is also Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Fisheries and Population Biology at Imperial College London. He holds a PhD in marine biology from the University of Glasgow, UK. He is an experienced stock assessment scientist and modeller, and has conducted research on a wide range of that and other fisheries management topics, including ecosystem based fisheries management and global fisheries governance. He is an acknowledged world expert on Antarctic fisheries and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. In his 15 year role as Principal CCAMLR Scientific Advisor to the UK Government he conducted research and advised on management of the South Georgia marine ecosystem and Antarctic fisheries. From 1989 to 1996 he was Data Manager at the CCAMLR Secretariat in Hobart, Australia, and previous to that was a stock assessment modeller with the Department of Agriculture, Northern Ireland. He has published more than 80 peer reviewed papers.
Simon Hunt, Director of Global Resources, Fairtrade International
Simon is Director of Global Resources at Fairtrade International. When he started at Fairtrade at the end of 2006 as Finance Director, he brought along previous experiences of financial roles in the private, public and non-profit sectors. He worked for a number of years as an auditor and advisor in the UK charity sector, before moving into senior financial management roles in the UK public sector, and then the world of international development. He also served for many years as a Trustee/Non-Exec Director and Treasurer of UK charities in the areas of youth development and social support.
Simon is a UK-qualified chartered accountant (ACA). He is passionate about music, the great outdoors, and the environment, especially trees. He played the bass guitar in an astonishing variety of bands over the years, and is currently providing funk, soul and Latin rhythms for bands in Bonn.
Mauricio Voivodic, Board Member, Rainforest Alliance/Sustainable Agriculture Network
Mauricio is the Executive Director of Imaflora, a Brazilian NGO, and founding member of the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN). He represents Imaflora on the SAN Board of Directors and is a representative to the FSC. Over the last 11 years he has performed many functions at Imaflora, including leading their tropical forest certification programme and their climate change initiative. He has worked extensively on certification processes for small producers, community and indigenous groups, and timber companies.
A forester by training, Mauricio holds a Masters degree in Environmental Science from the University of Sao Paulo. His studies were focused on non-state governance systems, in particular the institutional dynamics of voluntary certification systems to build and maintain legitimacy among stakeholders and in the marketplace. Mauricio participates in a number of national and international debates on sustainability, forestry and climate change.
Britta Wyss Bisang, Standards Director, UTZ Certified
Britta is the head of UTZ CERTIFIED’s Standards and Certification department, responsible for the development of the UTZ standards, the certification management as well as the monitoring and evaluation of the programme. She is a member of the UTZ management team and enjoys being part of the dynamic sustainability discussion.
Britta holds a masters degree in environmental sciences with a focus on soil science and risk management and has in-depth experience in various sustainability standard systems having previously worked for a certification body as auditor, trainer and certification officer. She is an expert in internal management systems for group certification and has worked closely with smallholder producer groups in Africa and the Middle East, covering a wide range of products such as coffee, cocoa, tea, cotton, spices and olive oil.
David Crucefix, Executive Director, International Organic Accreditation Services (IOAS)
David took on the role of Executive Director of the IOAS in May 2011 after ten years as Assistant Executive Director. As well as responsibility for quality management, development and external training initiatives during this time he has worked extensively as an evaluator of organic certification bodies in many countries. Between 2004 and 2006 he collaborated with the FAO/UNCTAD/IFOAM international task force on harmonisation developing some of their key strategy documents.
Prior to joining the IOAS in 2000, David has worked as an organic farmer, inspector, certifier and before that for 10 years in development aid work. David is an agronomist by training and has a PhD in plant pathology. He lives on a smallholding in north east Spain.