Mr. Moerland is a banker and authoritative scholar in the field of corporate finance and corporate governance. He has served as a member of the Executive Board of Rabobank Nederland since 2003, in 2009 he was appointed as Chairman. Outside Rabobank, Mr. Moerland serves as President of the European Association of Co-operative Banks, Member of the Board of Directors of the International Raiffeisen Union and Member of the Board of the Dutch Co-operative Council for Agriculture and Horticulture.

1. International Year of COOPERATIVES 2012
Advisory Group
Members

2. Mr. Piet Moerland
Chairman Executive Board
Rabobank Nederland
Mr. Moerland is a banker and authoritative
scholar in the field of corporate finance and
corporate governance. He has served as a
member of the Executive Board of Rabobank
Nederland since 2003, in 2009 he was
appointed as Chairman. Outside Rabobank,
Mr. Moerland serves as President of the
European Association of Co-operative Banks,
Member of the Board of Directors of the
International Raiffeisen Union and Member
of the Board of the Dutch Co-operative
Council for Agriculture and Horticulture.

3. Mrs. Maria Arantzazu Lascurain
General Secretary of Mondragon Corporation
Mondragon Corporation is the biggest business group
in the Basque country and 10th in the ranking of the
Spanish companies, with more than 84,000 people.
The Corporation is a federation of worker
cooperatives and founded in the town of Mondragón
in 1956.
She was General Consumer Manager of the Eroski
Group, Chairman of the Spanish Confederation of
Consumer Cooperatives (HISPACOOP) and director of
Fundacion Eroski until 2009.
It is a very diversified group with 255 companies and
entities operating in 4 areas: financial, industrial,
distribution and knowledge, and it is present in more
than 70 countries, with 77 production plants and 9
corporate offices.
With technological innovation and integration as the
driving forces behind its development (14 research
and development centres of its own and 716
invention patents).

4. Mr. Jack Wilkinson
President of ex-IFAP, now World’s Farmers
Organization
Jack Wilkinson has been a leader within the
farming community for the past thirty years
with provincial, federal and international
farm organizations. He has been recognized
for his contribution with an honourary
doctorate from the University of Guelph and
as an inductee to the Canadian Agricultural
Hall of Fame. Since serving three terms as
the President of the International Federation
of Agricultural Producers, he has focussed on
cooperatives; as a Director of Nipissing-
Sudbury Co-op and a Director of Co-
operators Insurance.
He was most recently named as one of three
farm representatives to the UN Year of The
Co-Op Committee 2012.
He continues to farm with his wife Julie in
Northern Ontario.

5. Ms. Dame Pauline Green
President of the International Co-operative
Alliance
Dame Pauline Green has worked within the co-operative
movement in the UK and globally for the last 25 years.
Before being elected as President of the ICA, she was the
Chief Executive Officer of Co-operatives UK, the apex body
for co-ops in the UK. During that time she was one of 12
members of the Co-operative Commission established by
the British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2000, which is
largely credited with setting out the vision and
recommendations that have led to the renaissance of the
UK co-operative movement in the last ten years. During
that time she also served the ICA as Co-President of the
European Region and, with her Co-President Etienne
Pflimlin President of Credit Mutuel, they oversaw the
restructuring of the representation of the co-operative
model of business in the institutions of the European
Union. Prior to that she was a co-operative member of the
European Parliament for ten years, serving as Leader of
the largest political group in the Parliament for five years.

6. Mr Seah Kian Peng
CEO (Singapore), NTUC Fairprice Co-operative Limited Deputy
Speaker, Parliament of Singapore and Member of Parliament for
Marine Parade GRC, Republic of Singapore
Mr. Seah Kian Peng is the Chief Executive Officer
(Singapore) of NTUC Fairprice Co-operative. The co-
operative is Singapore’s largest food retailer running a
chain of supermarkets, hypermarkets and convenience
stores. It employs over 8,000 staff and has an annual
turnover of over US$2 billion. He was chairman of the
Singapore National Co-operative Federation from 2002-
2008 and has been a board member of International
Co-operative Alliance since 2005.
Mr. Seah is also a Member of Parliament of the Republic
of Singapore. First elected in 2006, he was re-elected in
2011. On 17 Oct 2011, he was elected and appointed as
the Deputy Speaker of Parliament. Mr. Seah also sits on
various community groups, including being the Vice
President of Singapore Compact for CSR and the co-
chair of Social Enterprise Association of Singapore.

7. Ms. Monique F. Leroux
Chair of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of
Desjardins Group
Since 2008, Monique F. Leroux has been Chair of the
Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of
Desjardins Group. She represents all Desjardins
caisses and leads the largest cooperative financial
group in Canada and the sixth largest in the world,
with assets of more than $172 billion. As one of the
largest employers in Canada, Desjardins is supported
by the skills of its 42,200 employees and the
commitment of nearly 6,000 elected officers.
Through her leadership, along with the mobilization
of the Group’s officers and managers, she defined a
new strategic vision for the future of the Group,
strongly rooted in Desjardins’ cooperative mission
and values. In addition, she reorganized and
simplified the organizational structure of the Group
to accelerate its growth and strategic development,
increase its productivity and agility, and strengthen
the relationship with the caisses and their members.

8. Representing Ms. Leroux at the Advisory Group
meeting on 1 Nov 2011:
Ms. Suzanne Gendron holds the position of Vice-
President, Executive Services to the CEO and
Management Committee of Desjardins Group.
Reporting directly to the CEO, she manages and
coordinates various strategic Desjardins-wide
projects.

9. Mr. Brian Branch
Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of World
Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU)
Brian Branch, president and CEO of World
Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), was
appointed in 2011. Dr. Branch has worked at
WOCCU since 1990 and has been engaged in
development fieldwork, research and
implementation for more than 30 years. Dr.
Branch has developed programs to update and
expand savings-based financial services through
credit unions worldwide and has undertaken
credit union development assignments all over
the world. He co-authored Striking the Balance
in Microfinance: A Practical Guide to Mobilizing
Savings (2002) with Janette Klaehn and co-edited
Safe Money (2000) with Glenn Westley.

10. Mr. Mario Lubetkin
Chief Executive Officer (CEO), IPS International News
Agency Soc. Coop. Consortile a r.I.
Mr. Lubetkin is the CEO of IPS International
News Agency. He has coordinated
communications projects with the
Governments of Brazil, Finland, Italy, Spain
and Uruguay, among others, as well as with
United Nations (UN) agencies, the World Bank
and other organizations, and supports
communication efforts at the UN and civil
society major summits. Lecturer at IULM
University (Libera Università di Lingue e
Comunicazione) in Milan (Italy) and
coordinator of seminars on communication
and development at the Menéndez Pelayo
International University (UIMP) in Santander,
Spain. Mr. Lubetkin is also Vice-President of
Media Watch Global, co-founder of Com+
Alliance of Communicators for sustainable
development.

11. Ms. Stefania Marcone
Head Officer, International Relations and European
Policies, Legacoop (Lega Nazionale delle
Cooperative e Mutue)
Ms. Marcone has been the Head Officer
of International Relations at Legacoop
since 2007. In 2008 she was also
entrusted with the European Policies
Office of Legacoop. In 1997 she was
elected as Board member of the
International Cooperative Alliance,
representing the three Italian apex
cooperative organizations, ICA members
(Associazione Generale Cooperative
Italiane - AGCI, Confcooperative, and
Legacoop).

12. In October 2001 she was re-elected for a second
mandate to the ICA Board. In September 2005 she
was elected chairperson of the ICA Gender Equality
Committee. From 2007-2011, she was elected in
the National Management Committee of Legacoop.
She is member of the Legacoop National
Commission for Equal Opportunities, and also an
alternate member at the European Economic and
Social Committee. Moreover, She also worked as
External Relations officer at Cassa per il Credito alle
Imprese Artigiane (ARTIGIANCASSA) from 1983 to
1987 and from 1987 to 1992 she was President of a
women’s cooperative society in Rome (Italy) active
in the service sector.

13. Mr. Vitaly Ivanovich Teplov
Rector, Belgorod University of Cooperation,
Economics and Law
Professor Teplov is Rector of Belgorod
University of Cooperation, Economics and
Law. He is a Doctor of Economics,
Professor, and Merited Worker of Higher
School of the Russian Federation. He has
been heading the university since 1979. In
1995, Professor Teplov was elected
member of the Executive Committee of
the International Cooperative Alliance
Human Resource Development
Committee and in 2003, he became Vice-
Chairperson (European region) of the
Committee.

14. Mr. Francois Traoré
Honorary President, Association of African Cotton
Producers (Association des producteurs africains de coton)
Mr. Traoré is a Burkinabe farmer is
currently the Honorary President of the
Association of African Cotton Producers
after being e President from 2005 to
2010. Mr. Traoré has held various
positions in Burkina Faso including,
President of the Peasant Confederation
(Confédération Paysanne du Faso, 2002-
2006), Chairman of the National Union of
Cotton Producers (Union National des
Producteurs du Coton, 1998-2010), and
President of the Union Group of Cereals
and Agricultural Products (Union des
Groupements de Céréales et des Produits
Agricoles) in the region of Mouhoun
(1998-2001).

15. Mr. Traoré has received several honors: Recognition
of Exceptional Merit by the Family Earth Foundation
(Reconnaissance du mérite exceptionnelle de la
Fondation Famille Terre) in Quebec in 2000, the
French National Order of Merit (Ordre national du
mérite français) in 2002, the Order of Merit for Rural
Development in Burkina Faso (Ordre du mérite du
développement rural du Burkina Faso) in 2004, and
honorary degree, Doctor honoris causa, from the
University Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of
Gembloux (Belgium) in 2006.

16. Ms. Elizabeth Atangana
President, Central African Farmer's Organization
Ms. Atangana was elected on October 2010 in Malawi,
the first President of the Platform of the Pan-African
Peasant Organizations (Plateforme Panafricaine des
Organisations Paysannes - PAFO). Her experience and
commitment have been marked nationally by the
establishment in 1980 of the Association of Women
for Sustainable Development in the town of Essé in
Central Africa (Association des Femmes pour le
Développement Durable dans la localité d’Esse «Entre
Nous»), the creation in 1991 of the Sustainable
Development Solidarity and Support Network (Chaîne
de Solidarité et d’Appui aux Actions de
Développement Durable – CHASAADD-M), and the
creation of the Common Fund to support grassroots
organizations (Fonds commun d’appui aux
organisations de base – FOCAOB).

17. Since 1998, she has been involved in the construction of the
National Peasant Movement through the National
Coordination of Peasant Organizations of Cameroon
(Mouvement paysan national à travers la Concertation
nationale des organisations paysannes du Cameroun - CNOP-
CAM), as well as in the creation of PROPAC, the sub-regional
Platform of Peasant Organizations of Central Africa
(Plateforme sous régionale des Organisations paysannes
d’Afrique centrale) in 2005. (Phote Credit: FAO / Alessandra
Benedetti)

18. Ms. Peng Yuan
Professor, Rural Development Institute, Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences
Professor Yuan is currently Vice Chairperson of the
International Committee for the Promotion of Chinese
Industrial Cooperatives (ICCIC Gung ho) and the Vice-
Director for the Cooperative Economy Study
Association of the Chinese Federation of Supplying and
Marketing Cooperatives. She participated in
cooperative promotion and cooperative policy issue
studies in rural China through these organizations. She
has been a cooperative consultant and expert to
projects implemented by a number of international
organizations, including the World Bank, Asian
Development Bank, the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) and the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD). She is also a
cooperative consultant appointed by the Agricultural
Committee of Beijing Municipal
Government since 2007.

19. Ms. Enkhtsetseg Ochir
Ambassador of Mongolia to the United Nations
Her Excellency Ochir Enkhtsetseg is the Permanent
Representative of Mongolia to the United Nations. Prior to
this appointment, she held the position of Director-General
of the Multilateral Cooperation Department, Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Mongolia, where she actively worked in
favor of New or Restored Democracies at the national,
regional and international level. Ambassador Enkhtsetseg is
also a Member of the Governmental Advisory Board of the
International Centre for Democratic Transition based in
Budapest (Hungary). She studied International Relations,
majoring in International Economy, in Moscow and in
Stanford. The Government of Mongolia is the initiator and
the main sponsor of the International Year of Cooperatives
2012.