Elli Tsiforou pictured with Christiane Lambert President of COPA and Lennart Nielsson President of COGECA

Copa and Cogeca, the umbrella body for European farm organisations and co-operatives has appointed Elli Tsiforou as its new secretary general. The Greek woman is currently CEO of the Greek famers and co-operatives representative organization GAIA Epicheirein based in Athens. She succeeds Pekka Pesonen who stepped down earlier this year to return home to Finland as the director general of the Finnish Ministry for Agriculture.

Ms. Tsiforou was officially ratified at a meeting of Copa and Cogeca members in June and will take up her new role in September. ICOS has been a member of Cogeca which represents European co-operatives since 1973. We wish Elli Tsiforou every success in her new role and look forward to working with her to support and develop the co-operative movement.