Cooperatives Europe appoints a new President and Board

Cooperatives Europe appoints a new President and Board

Friday 24 September, during the General Assembly, Cooperatives Europe members elected through a fully democratic process the new Board, Sectoral Representatives and Susanne Westhausen as the new President. Ms Westhausen succeeds Jean-Louis Bancel whose 4-year term now ends.

Ms Westhausen, Director of the Danish cooperative Kooperationen, brings years of experience within the cooperative movement. She will be the second female President of Cooperatives Europe which represents 176.000 cooperatives enterprises across Europe since 2006. Speaking to the participants of the General Assembly, Ms Westhausen said:

“Because we are one collective movement, uniting and representing  people based enterprises around common values, we have unique possibilities to develop sustainable growth based on all the fantastic experiences we have in different sectors here in Europe but also in other parts of the world.”

She continued:

“The cooperative way of doing business with the positive effects of the special ownership is unique! We just need to demonstrate our results – and do it together!”.

Next to her appointment the members also elected a new Board and sectoral representatives. The new Board now consists out of 15 members:

• BONDE Pernilla of HSB Riksförbund,
• DEBRY Jacques of Febecoop,
• DE LUCA Katia of Alleanza delle Cooperative Italiane,
• GRODZKI Mieczyslaw of the National Cooperative Council,
• KAPPES Andreas of DGRV,
• MEYER Thomas of Coop-Fr,
• ÖRNEK Ünal of Orkoop,
• PUUSA Anu of Pellervo,
• STEFANOV Petar of the Central Cooperative Alliance,
• WOODELL Vivian of Co-operatives UK.

Sector representatives are:

• FERRAND Isabelle of EACB,
• FIEDLER Mathias of Eurocoop,
• GUERINI Giuseppe of CECOP,
• POFFERI Leonardo of Cogeca,
• VANSINTJAN Dirk of Rescoop.EU.

Ms Westhausen thanked Mr Bancel for his great contributions to the movement, such as the work with the board of directors on the cooperative response to the Covid-19 pandemic and many other projects over the past four years.

The President of Cooperatives Europe is also the vice-president of the International Cooperative Alliance.