COLEAD ASSOCIATION
COLEAD is COLEACP plus more expertise. COLEAD means COmmittee Linking Entrepreneurship-Agriculture-Development.
COLEAD is a network of companies, professional organisations and experts committed to inclusive and sustainable agriculture.
As a private sector (not-for-profit) organisation, our purpose is to support activities that aim to increase the agricultural sector’s contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
We design, manage and implement development programmes. Online and in the field, we supply technical assistance; vocational training; and support services that offer research and innovation brokerage, monitoring of regulations and standards, market insights, networks and alliances, and access to finance.
COLEAD is ISO 21001 certified. This certification is a management system standard designed specifically for educational organisations. It covers vocational training in sustainable agriculture and demonstrates COLEAD’s commitment to developing skills and expertise in this field through education, learning and research.
Governance
COLEAD is a non-profit association founded in 1973 in Paris-Rungis (France). COLEAD is governed by French law (Loi de 1901).
The sovereign body of COLEAD is its General Assembly, which is composed of all the members of the Association. COLEAD is managed by a Board of Directors comprising at least 12 and at most 16 members, half from ACP countries and half from EU countries. The Directors are elected by the General Assembly for a term of four years. The function of Director is not remunerated.
The Board of Directors meets as often as the interests of COLEAD require, and at least twice a year.
The Board of Directors elects from among its members a Bureau composed of a Chairman, a Vice-President (from an EU country if the Chairman is from an ACP country, and vice versa), a Secretary General and a Treasurer.
The Board of Directors delegates the execution of activity programmes and budgets to a permanent structure, the General Delegation, headed by a General Delegate appointed by the Board of Directors and necessarily chosen from outside its members.
Stephen Mintah is the Chairman of COLEAD. Stephen is a Ghanaian national, and Managing Director of Sea-Freight Pineapple Exporters of Ghana (SPEG). He has been Chairman of the association since 2013.
Jeremy Knops is the General Delegate of COLEAD. He is a Belgian national, and trained as a management and economic engineer. Jeremy joined COLEAD in 2009. He has been COLEAD’s Director of Operations since 2014, and became General Delegate in June 2019.
COLEAD is at the forefront of developments and challenges in ACP and European agriculture (…) The objective is competitiveness – to ensure that the technical skills acquired by companies serve to improve their economic performance and, beyond that, to contribute to unlocking the agri-food potential in developing countries.
Stephen Mintah
COLEAD’s Chairman.
Growing people is about moving forward, helping people and companies grow by giving them the means to flourish while respecting the environment and the humanity of each individual. It is also a call to work together towards sustainable development objectives by building our capacity to create a different agri-food model that addresses social, environmental and economic challenges at national, regional and global levels.
Jeremy Knops,
General Delegate of COLEAD
MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS – MANDATE 2022-2025
MEMBERS OF THE BOARD
