As of the beginning of April, the supervisory board was happy to welcome Mariette Gross, who has been an asset to iCRA for the last 7 and a half years, as the new Executive Director. Here are a few words from Frans Debets, iCRA’s interim Managing Director:

“In 2018, I was invited to be the chair of the Executive Board of iCRA. With the board members Pien Hogenbirk and Juan Ceballos a course for change was set out. The plans we made were simple, but not easy to execute. In 2019 it became clear that iCRA changed into organization it wanted to be. The planned transition from a three person board into a one person board could take place in April 2020, despite the corona crisis. Mariëtte Gross is now the new leader of iCRA, she and the iCRA team will continue to work on the unchanged mission of iCRA: improve the livelihood of the small scale farmer in the Global South.”

During this challenging time, the iCRA team has been excited to see Mariette in her new role. With many iCRA staff members that has worked alongside Mariette for many years and has been witness to her excellent leadership and positivity, the news of Mariette taking up this position has been a good inspiration for hope and trust during a time of crisis.

This is what Mariette had to say:

“Being involved in iCRA projects and training provided me the opportunity to develop myself as a professional and it was a boost to my leadership skills. Working with local partners in many different countries has been inspirational. I am also grateful for the space I got to wonder around in the Netherlands as part-time independent facilitator and trainer. This endeavor has been highly challenging, very instructive and sharpened my entrepreneurial skills. This, in combination with the meaningful transformation iCRA went through the last 2 years, made me ready to take up this new role. I have confidence that with this agile and committed team, we will continue to help agri-food professionals get the most out of their work with students, business and partnerships. To deal with the agri-food challenges we are faced with worldwide, we believe that besides technical and business skills, people need to connect. I think that the trust iCRA helps to build, is essential to find sustainable solutions that benefits everybody involved.”

Trust is very important to Mariette and the iCRA team, and we all look forward to sharing this new chapter in iCRA with you. We will continue to invest ourselves into Agri-food Professionals and build trust together along the way.