Jaime Lillo Appointed Olive Council Executive Director

Jaime Lillo has been appointed as the new exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Madrid-based International Olive Council dur­ing the ple­nary ses­sion of the 117^th Council of Members meet­ing.

According to the IOC, the Council of Members voted unan­i­mously to appoint Lillo after a series of inter­views and delib­er­a­tion. He will replace the out­go­ing Abdellatif Ghedira in January 2024 and will become the first Spaniard to run the orga­ni­za­tion since it was founded under the aus­pices of the United Nations in 1959.

The IOC told Olive Oil Times that Lillo, who has been the organization’s deputy direc­tor for tech­ni­cal affairs and coop­er­a­tion since July 2016, would not com­ment on the appoint­ment before he takes up the posi­tion.

In a 2016 inter­view with Olive Oil Times, Lillo said his pas­sion for olives and olive oil took root after vis­it­ing his uncle’s olive grove Jaén, the world’s largest olive oil-pro­duc­ing region, as a child.

The 49-year-old is an agri­cul­tural engi­neer with a degree from the Polytechnic University of Madrid. Before join­ing the IOC, he worked as Spain’s per­ma­nent rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the European Union, an advi­sor to the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development.

Since join­ing the IOC, Lillo has man­aged the council’s tech­ni­cal port­fo­lio, includ­ing research and devel­op­ment, envi­ron­ment, train­ing and olive oil chem­istry oper­a­tions and stan­dard­iza­tion. He also mon­i­tored the council’s pro­mo­tional cam­paigns and eco­nomic research.

Lillo was also involved in the launch of the world olive oil obser­va­tory and was tasked with coor­di­nat­ing IOC-funded World Olive Day cel­e­bra­tions in mem­ber coun­tries.

In 2016, shortly after being named tech­ni­cal direc­tor, 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.”

“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 added.

During a 2019 inter­view with Olive Oil Times, Lillo said pro­duc­ing coun­tries and the IOC must focus on the social and envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­ity of olive farm­ing.

“We spread the best prac­tices to help farm­ers to have the best olive oils, improv­ing the sus­tain­abil­ity of pro­duc­tion, and we think this is the only and best way to look to the future,” he said.