New Deputy Directors at International Olive Council

During its 26^th extra­or­di­nary ses­sion in March 2016, the Council of Members of the International Olive Council selected senior offi­cials which began in their new roles on July 1. Now the Executive Secretariat of the IOC includes two new deputy direc­tors: Mustafa Sepetçi in charge of admin­is­tra­tive and finan­cial affairs and Jaime Lillo, who will over­see the tech­ni­cal, eco­nomic and pro­mo­tional units. After the first month of work, we meet them to talk about their goals and expec­ta­tions.

“I feel lucky to work for the IOC and the olive sec­tor and I am glad to deal with the health­i­est and most pre­cious prod­uct in the world,” said Mustafa Sepetçi, 41, who said he is keen to revi­tal­ize the admin­is­tra­tive and finan­cial struc­ture of the IOC and ensure the opti­mal use of the organisation’s resources.

He holds a degree in polit­i­cal sci­ences from the University of Ankara, after which he spe­cial­ized in inter­na­tional rela­tions obtain­ing an M.A. at the London Metropolitan University.

Sepetçi has spent a long time work­ing as an inter­nal audi­tor in gov­ern­ment admin­is­tra­tion, par­tic­u­larly in con­nec­tion with the provin­cial restruc­tur­ing car­ried out by the Ministry of Customs and Trade.

As the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs at the Ministry of Customs and Trade since 2011, Sepetçi rep­re­sented Turkey at the IOC and was respon­si­ble for super­vis­ing the recog­ni­tion of olive oil test­ing lab­o­ra­to­ries and the cre­ation of the third inter­na­tional col­lec­tion of olive germ plasm in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the IOC.

In this capac­ity, he par­tic­i­pated actively in the nego­ti­a­tion of the International Agreement on Olive Oil and Table Olives in 2015. As a reg­u­lar par­tic­i­pant in inter­na­tional meet­ings at the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Co-oper­a­tive Alliance (ICA) and the FAO, Sepetçi was put for­ward by Turkey for the post of deputy direc­tor and was cho­sen by the IOC mem­ber coun­tries at the end of a selec­tion process.

The key area of his new role is the strength­en­ing of the cen­tral posi­tion of the IOC in the olive oil and table olive sec­tor. ​“Increasing the vis­i­bil­ity and recog­ni­tion of the IOC will pro­vide access to accu­rate infor­ma­tion and effec­tive solu­tions to the prob­lems encoun­tered in the olive world,” said the new deputy direc­tor. ​“It will also pro­vide a tool for com­mon stan­dard­iza­tion activ­i­ties, as the IOC should be a meet­ing point for all oper­a­tors in the sec­tor.” His inten­tion is that the IOC will be restruc­tured in such a way as to enable it to play a role as a world ref­er­ence for doc­u­men­ta­tion and infor­ma­tion.

Sepetçi is also respon­si­ble for IOC bud­get man­age­ment and said he is deter­mined to con­tribute his utmost to achiev­ing the objec­tives of the International Agreement and ensur­ing a bal­anced bud­get to make that pos­si­ble.

Moreover, his aim is to improve the infor­ma­tion sys­tem in order to pro­vide trace­abil­ity, easy and rapid access and trans­parency, and respond bet­ter to the expec­ta­tions of the mem­ber coun­tries and the sec­tor. ​“In today’s world, infor­ma­tion tech­nol­ogy is tak­ing up more space in our lives day by day,” he remarked. ​“This trend is likely to con­tinue and pick up speed in the future. We are eager to develop an infor­ma­tion sys­tem that will rein­force the IOC’s capac­i­ties and exper­tise.”

Deputy Director Jaime Lillo told Olive Oil Times, ​“My goal is to work together with the team for a new phase of the IOC and give it a fresh impe­tus under the new Agreement.”

Lillo, 42, is an agri­cul­tural engi­neer with a degree from the Polytechnic University of Madrid. He has worked at the Permanent Representation of Spain to the EU and as spe­cial advi­sor to the Ministry of Agriculture.

As a for­mer offi­cial of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, he has also worked closely with var­i­ous NGOs on a num­ber of devel­op­ment and coop­er­a­tion projects.

Lillo is a reg­u­lar at inter­na­tional meet­ings of the United Nations, FAO, WTO and OECD. In addi­tion to the man­age­ment of the IOC tech­ni­cal port­fo­lio, which includes R&D and envi­ron­ment, train­ing and spe­cific oper­a­tions and olive oil chem­istry and stan­dard­iza­tion, the new deputy direc­tor, who was nom­i­nated by Spain for the role, will mon­i­tor the olive oil con­sump­tion pro­mo­tion cam­paigns and eco­nomic research car­ried out by the IOC, in addi­tion to the planned launch of a world olive obser­va­tory.

The exec­u­tive direc­tor has also tasked him with coor­di­nat­ing the World Olive Day, held every year on November 26, which is planned to be cel­e­brated by mem­ber coun­tries with grant fund­ing from the IOC.

“I will oper­ate in order to achieve the objec­tives included in the Agreement: to get closer to con­sumers, to enhance har­mo­niza­tion of the stan­dard and facil­i­tate the access of new coun­tries to the IOC.”

He believes that the role of olive trees against cli­mate change is very impor­tant, and this is also an issue that the IOC will sub­mit to the COP22 in November (22^nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC).

Lillo, who has seen in recent years the great evo­lu­tion of Spanish olive oil, revealed some per­sonal details about his pas­sion for extra vir­gin olive oil that began when he was a child: ​“I went to visit my uncle in Jaén who had an olive grove, and we tasted the new extra vir­gin olive oil that had just come out of the mill. Nowadays, in the morn­ing I usu­ally have bread with extra vir­gin olive oil and tomato or honey and I always want to be sure to have var­i­ous oils from dif­fer­ent vari­eties to use them accord­ing to the food.”