Pierre Pienaar has been elected WPO (World Packaging Organisation) president for the second term running, commencing January 2021.

During his speech, immediately after his election at the WPO board meeting on November 25 during WPO Digital Week, he pointed out that one of his goals is “to make society understand that packaging is part of the solution, and not a problem”.

Pierre also reinforced his mission established in November 2017, when he was first elected – to use packaging to eradicate hunger and poverty around the globe.

“We had achieved a lot regarding this goal, especially through packaging education, but there is much more to be done, especially in this pandemic period,” he said.

“We cannot ignore that some countries still face the extreme inequality of income between professionals and the masses being the biggest contributor toward the low GDP. Having this in mind, we need to contemplate how to reduce food wastage through the packaging industry.

“Packaging alone cannot fix this problem. However, when we consider all elements – design, material, innovative products, technological advancements, responsible, sustainable, reusable, environmentally-friendly packaging – we can explore the opportunities for the packaging industry in the value chain that could get more food to more people around the globe.”

To put all these plans into action, Pierre has appointed a team of high level packaging professionals to work with him in the next three years of the second term (2021-2023).

The new executive team consists of:

General Secretary – Johannes Bergmair (Austria)
Senior Vice President Marketing – Luciana Pellegrino (Brazil)

Vice President Exhibitions and Conferences – Soha Atallah (Lebanon)

Vice President Education – Henky Wibawa (Indonesia)

Vice President Sustainability and Save Food – Nerida Kelton (Australia)
Press & Communications Liaison Officer – Liliam Benzi (Brazil)

Pierre also appointed three WPO ambassadors that can officially represent the organisation in an advisory capacity to the president.

They are Carls Olsmats (Sweden), Kishan Singh (South Africa) and Chakravarthi AVPS (India).

Bergmair will be responsible for the Food Safety (Packaging Hygiene) portfolio, while Pienaar will oversee the awards portfolio (WorldStar and WorldStar Students).