| President: Tom Vaclavik, Czech Republic | |
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Tom is the Principal in the marketing consultancy Green marketing (www.greenmarketing.cz). Green marketing is a marketing consultancy in the organic food business working for organic farmers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers. Green marketing also works with foreign companies wishing to enter the CEE organic food markets or export organic foodstuff from the CEE region. Green Marketing offers a comprehensive array of services to help companies and organizations to market and promote themselves to their designated audiences. Green marketing collects the most comprehensive marketing information across the entire organic products supply chain. We help clients make accurate and insightful decisions about their businesses. |
| Business Development Manager: Susan van Osch, Switzerland | |
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Susan runs the company ‚Susan van Osch Sustainable Marketing’ and provides marketing services for companies with a vision of sustainability, mainly trading and research organisations in the field of organic products. She is happy to share her experience in project management, marketing concepts, market research & analysis, visual merchandising, in-store promotion and PR. In her work she brings along a hands-on mentality as well as analytical and organisational talent. Spoken languages: English, German, French, Dutch and basic Italian. |
| Executive Director: Ralph Liebing, Austria | |
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Ralph’s first contacts to the organic & environmental movement go back to the late 70s. A trained Hotel-Manager by origin he changed directions and underwent training in bio-dynamic gardening, husbandry and tree-nursing in Germany. He took courses at Emerson College/GB in bio-dynamic agriculture & rural development (www.emerson.org.uk) In the 90s he founded an NGO engaging in the fields of intermediate technology transfer for development projects, mainly in Africa. From its formation in 1998 until its fusion with the new Bio Austria Famers Association (http://www.bio-austria.at) in 2004 he was director of the Austrian Organic Retailers Association VNOe and accomplished the recognition of the formerly unknown Organic Special Shop Sector (bio-shops, bio-supermarkets, special processors) in public and amongst political decision-makers. In Bio Austria he was working until 2008 as marketing expert for organic retailing and direct-marketing. Since 2008 Ralph is working for FiBL (www.fibl.org) as social-economist and expert in the fields of emerging-market-development and services. He is a committed networker and his passion is the dissemination of bench-mark know-how in organic-marketing so to support the development of local organic markets. This also satisfies his love to travel and to learn from foreign cultures. Together with Tom Vaclavik he initiated the formation of ORA in 2004. He is a father of 6 children, lives in Vienna and spends his scarce leisure with his family mostly in the beautiful landscapes of Austria and the Northern Mediterranean. |
| Vice-president: Toralf Richter, Germany | |
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Toralf works as a consultant in the specialised organic retailer sector for 'BIO PLUS AG' in Switzerland (http://www.biopartner.ch). Before Toralf was employed at the Research Institute for Organic Farming (FiBL) in Switzeland for seven years. He got experience there in the organic market related consumer and market research and participated in several European research projects (OMIaRD, EISfOM, QLIF). Apart from the scientific profile Toralf published books on market research results and marketing guidelines for organic producer initiatives (https://www.fibl.org/english/shop/) which are helpful tools for the development of the organic markets in many countries. |
