GFSI Announces New Board Chairman

The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), managed by The Consumer Goods Forum, announced during the closing session of the Global Food Safety Conference in Orlando, Fla., the appointment of Yves Rey, Corporate Quality General Manager at Danone to succeed Jürgen Matern, Vice President, Sustainability and Regulatory Affairs at Metro AG as its Board Chairman. Yves will take over the leadership of GFSI effective immediately.

Commenting on the appointment, outgoing Chairman Jürgen Matern said: “The GFSI Board is delighted that Yves has agreed to take over this role, which occurs at an important time for GFSI. The initiative has gained tremendous momentum over the last few years in many parts of the world. GFSI still has a key role to play not only in encouraging industry-wide adoption of GFSI recognised schemes but also in supporting smaller suppliers in different parts of the world to build their capacity and ensure the development of effective food safety management systems through a systematic continuous improvement approach.”

Yves added “Food Safety extends beyond any one company or country, it is a shared responsibility that includes governments, regulatory agencies, food related companies and consumers without forgetting media, NGOs and consumers. 21st century food safety requires greater collaboration than ever before and GFSI can act as a bond between all the stakeholders”.

Jürgen will continue to serve on the GFSI Board of Directors.

Yves Rey will become the sixth Chairman of the Global Food Safety Initiative. He will continue to be supported by the two recently appointed GFSI Vice Chairs Cenk Gurol, President, AEON Global SCM CO., LTD, Japan and Frank Yiannas, Vice President of Food Safety, Walmart Stores Inc whose appointments were announced respectively in March 2011 and June 2011.

Yves Rey is a French citizen and a graduate of ENSAIA in Nancy, France. He started his career in 1975 with Heineken in production and then joined Schweppes in 1982, first as Plant Manager and then as Operations Director.
In 1991, he was appointed Technical Director of Coca-Cola. In 1994, he was appointed General Manager for Europe of McCain Sunnyland, before moving on in 1999 to become General Manager South Europe of Wipak Flexible Packaging. Yves joined Groupe Danone in 2003. He currently holds the position of Corporate Quality General Manager.