Newark, DE. and Washington, D.C. – International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA) has named Tamara Muruetagoiena as Director of Sustainability, a new role for the organization that shows the commitment to provide sustainability resources and guidance to the industry.
Tamara Muruetagoiena begins her role in April 2022 and will focus on not only on IFPA initiatives including the Sustainability Research Center, member toolkit for communication best practices and assessment tool, but Muruetagoiena will also serve as the subject matter expert on sustainability and effective practices.
“IFPA recognizes sustainability as the social, economic and environmental opportunities and actions that promotes the longevity of our planet and the financial viability of our industry,” said Ed Treacy, IFPA’s Vice President of Supply Chain & Sustainability. “This role is vital to creating, capturing, and sharing the practices we are developing as an industry and I’m thrilled that Tamara, with her impressive background and passionate approach to sustainability is now on board to support our members and our industry.”
Muruetagoiena joins IFPA bringing over two decades of experience in the agricultural and environmental arenas. Most recently, she served as the Executive Director of Great Mountain Forest, where she worked to promote conservation and sustainable forestry, and was also responsible for the organization’s carbon investment program. Prior to this role, she served as senior global manager in sustainability and R&D at Driscoll’s where she focused a variety of organizational strategies that included sustainable packaging and plastic use, communications to promote the company’s sustainability efforts, and also provided strategic guidance for the research and development department and relevant work teams.
“Throughout my career, I’ve been committed to bringing forward and communicating sustainable practices that support our global environment and make our industry thrive,” said Muruetagoiena. “I’m looking forward to working with our members and industry to create meaningful strategies to advance sustainability in produce and floral across the world. “
Muruetagoiena also has extensive experience working in both in policy, having worked for the European Union as a policy advisor and academia as an environmental science researcher at Yale University. She holds a Master of Forest Science from Yale, an MBA and International Marketing Diploma from University of California at Berkeley and ESEUNE Business School and a bachelor’s from Washington State University. She is fluent in English, French and Spanish and working command of other languages including Basque and Portuguese.
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About the International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA)
The International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA) is the largest and most diverse international association serving the entire fresh produce and floral supply chain and the only to seamlessly integrate world-facing advocacy and industry-facing support. We exist to bring the industry together to create a vibrant future for all. We grow our member’s prosperity by conducting advocacy; connecting people and ideas; and offering guidance that allows us all to take action with purpose and confidence. While IFPA is built on the legacy of United Fresh and Produce Marketing Association, it is not just a combination. It is transformational. Recognizing the industry required an even more powerful and unified voice, the leaders of the former United Fresh and Produce Marketing Association chose not to merge, but rather to create an entirely new organization to supersede their organizations, effective January 1, 2022.
