Cooperatives Europe members elected a new board and president at their General Assembly on 24 September.
Susanne Westhausen, chief executive of the Danish cooperative Kooperationen, was elected president; she succeeds Jean-Louis Bancel whose four-year term has come to an end.
Ms Westhausen has been with Kooperationen , which is Denmark’s national apex for co-ops, since 2007. As president of Cooperatives Europe she is also a vice-president of the International Cooperative Alliance.
She said: “Because we are one collective movement, uniting and representing people-based enterprises around common values, we have unique possibilities to develop sustainable growth based on all the fantastic experiences we have in different sectors here in Europe but also in other parts of the world.
“The co-operative way of doing business with the positive effects of the special ownership is unique! We just need to demonstrate our results – and do it together.”
Ms Westhausen also thanked Mr Bancel for his contributions to the movement.
Cooperatives Europe represents 84 member organisations from 33 European countries across all business sectors.
The new board also includes 15 other representatives from member organisations and five sector representatives.
The other representatives are:
BONDE Pernilla of HSB Riksförbund,
DEBRY Jacques of Febecoop,
DE LUCA Katia of Alleanza delle Cooperative Italiane,
GRODZKI Mieczyslaw of the National Cooperative Council,
KAPPES Andreas of DGRV,
MEYER Thomas of Coop-Fr,
ÖRNEK Ünal of Orkoop,
PUUSA Anu of Pellervo,
STEFANOV Petar of the Central Cooperative Alliance,
WOODELL Vivian of Co-operatives UK.
The sector representatives are:
FERRAND Isabelle of EACB,
FIEDLER Mathias of Eurocoop,
GUERINI Giuseppe of CECOP,
POFFERI Leonardo of Cogeca,
VANSINTJAN Dirk of Rescoop.EU.
The General Assembly was a hybrid event, taking place both virtually and physically took place partly and was hosted by the Fédération Nationale des Caisses d’Epargne (FNCE) and Coop-Fr.
