PRESS RELEASE
Utrecht, 21 September 2021 – On October 1, Lizet Friesen-Leibbrandt, the former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of HAK, will take up her new position at IDH – The Sustainable Trade Initiative. Friesen-Leibbrandt is the first CFO to be hired by IDH and she will have a seat on the Executive Board. “With Lizet we have found what we were looking for: someone who sees the complex structure of our partly public and partly privately-funded organization as a challenge and who can help us further in our transition to a professional global organization,” said Daan Wensing, CEO at IDH.
Lizet Friesen-Leibbrandt
Since 2014, Friesen-Leibbrandt was CFO at HAK, the Dutch brand on a mission to get more people eating more vegetables and beans. Here she served as statutory director and was responsible for HAK’s strategic transformation from canning manufacturer in Benelux to a branded plant-based food company in North-West Europe. Prior to her move to HAK, she spent nine years as Finance Director at Group Danone/ Royal Numico, where she was financially responsible for the organization of Nutricia Export, the baby food factories and the worldwide procurement organization among other responsibilities. She started her career at Unilever in 2000. She is also a member of the Supervisory Board and Board member of the cooperative Agrifirm since 2016.
About IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative
IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) restores flourishing markets with better jobs, better incomes and a better environment. When IDH is successful, companies rebalance the relationships between the workers they employ, the customers they serve and the planet that serves all of us.
IDH achieves this by creating public-private partnerships, and by using data to design, test and invest in more sustainable ways of doing business. IDH is headquartered in the Netherlands, with over 250 employees globally, operating in 20 value chains and sourcing regions with over 600 public and private partners. In 12 years of operation, IDH has generated over 390 M in private sector investment and support for new business models that create positive impact. This has reached 4 M farmers with access to finance or good agricultural practices; supported protection, restoration and sustainable rehabilitation of over 550,000 hectares of agrarian landscapes; improved the working conditions and wages of over 580,500 laborers.
IDH’s work is made possible because of the funding and trust of multiple European governments and private foundations. For more information, go to www.idhsustainabletrade.com or follow @IDHTrade on Twitter and LinkedIn.