Our Next Chapter Starts with Goodbye…

News is announced, that Peter-Erik Ywema, Director of Strategy and Engagement, will be leaving our organisation on November 24. The Secretariat would like to thank him for his extraordinary passion and commitment over the past 10 years, and we wish him all the very best in his future.

Here is Peter-Erik’s full message that he left for our members to say goodbye. 

Dear friends,

After 10 very interesting and intense years of helping to shape SAI Platform with its unique open atmosphere of exploring business solutions for sustainable agriculture, I have decided to seek a new challenge. It has been a great time in which I have learned a lot and have met many amazing, kind and incredibly committed people.

I am proud of what we have achieved together, and I believe it is from this base that the transition forward can, will and needs to happen. I would like to express a special thanks to two people whose contribution to our relatively young field of expertise cannot be overvalued enough and who have become my ‘mentors’: Hans Joehr and Jan Kees Vis. As my first president, it was Hans Joehr who laid out the fundamentals of practical solutions based attitude that we still hold to this day. While a decade ago, Jan Kees entrusted me to take up the role of General Manager and make the platform a working success. Jan Kees both within his company and outside played and still plays an invaluable role in pre-competitive collaboration.

I would like to highlight three things that have made these 10 years so special for me:

1. The huge growth of membership, indicating the added value that companies have in SAI Platform’s collaborative approach for sustainable agriculture solutions.
2. The commitment of various individuals in the Executive Committee and the six Presidents that I have worked with.
3. The tools and enabling environment that we have created and facilitated, to embark on a sustainable sourcing journey, like FSA and the recent B2B tool for the Dairy Sustainability Framework. In my view, they are a requirement for the impact that we aspire to at farm level.

I don’t know yet exactly what my next mission will be, but I am convinced that it will remain in the space of sustainable solutions for food, where our joint passion is. I want to thank you all for your trust in fulfilling what has been for me, an honourable and rewarding role.

I wish all of you, my team and ExCo in particular all the wisdom and energy to foster this beautiful precompetitive space for the benefit of the globe and its travellers.

I hope to stay in touch.

Kindest regards,

Peter-Erik         

P.S. I want to give you a small farewell present by Rene Magritte, who so brilliantly captures what the power of vision can be, something that has guided me in many ways….

The President of the Executive Committee, Adrian Greet, would also like to thank him on behalf of all our members and partners.

Dear all,

As President and on behalf of the Executive Committee, the Secretariat and all our members, I am sure you join me in thanking Peter-Erik for all he has given us and SAI Platform, and to wish him every success in his future endeavours.    

SAI Platform celebrates 15 years this year and Peter-Erik has been the steady hand on the tiller for the last ten. During his time, we have grown in membership and stature across the industry and have delivered positive progress for sustainability in farming. The member-led working groups have been a centre of collaboration and knowledge exchange and deliver at farm-level and the Farm Sustainability Assessment has developed into a critical tool to engage farmers, drive sustainable practice and improve communication of good practices along the supply chain. Peter-Erik has been at the heart of many of these achievements. His creativity, patience, wisdom and insights have been fundamental to our progress and form the foundation of our success today and for the future.  

It is always with mixed feelings when friends move to explore new horizons, but I am sure Peter-Erik will not be a stranger.

We will be actively recruiting to ensure strong continued leadership of SAI Platform and to harness the power of our collaboration to the benefit of our members and our vision on sustainable agriculture.

Best Regards,

Adrian Greet, President of SAI Platform