Our Organisation

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is a global, multi-stakeholder initiative on sustainable palm oil. Members of RSPO, and participants in its activities come from many different backgrounds, including plantation companies, processors and traders, consumer goods manufacturers and retailers of palm oil products, financial institutions, environmental NGOs and social NGOs, from many countries that produce or use palm oil. The RSPO vision is to “transform the markets by making sustainable palm oil the norm".

Board of Governors

The RSPO is managed by a Board of Governors comprised of 16 members, designated by the General Assembly for 2 years. To ensure an efficient and progressive management, the Board of Governors is supported by 4 Standing Committees. Each Standing Committee is comprised of members from the Board of Governors (including Alternate Board of Governors) as well as RSPO members. The Board of Governors is also supported by advisors.

The first Board of Governors was elected at the inaugural General Assembly held on 6 October 2004. Through staggered voting, within each sector, half the Board of Governors is re-elected every year, at the Annual General Assembly of members of the members of the assembly. When a seat is due for election any member in good standing from the particular sector may offer themselves to be elected. Incumbents may offer themselves for re-election or may continue if there are no nominations within their respective categories for the Board of Governor seats.

RSPO General Assembly (GA)

The RSPO General Assembly (GA) is a mandatory requirement under the RSPO Statutes and convenes annually. It involves all RSPO members, however only Ordinary Members have voting rights. An Ordinary Member may cast a GA vote either in person, by proxy, or by other electronic means.

About RSPO GA Resolutions

In accordance with the RSPO Statutes, resolutions may be submitted for consideration by the GA. In order for the GA to meaningfully deliberate and decide on resolutions, the submissions must meet the stipulated requirements to facilitate proper consideration of resolutions within a fixed time frame.

Guidance: The contents of proposed resolutions should not conflict with the RSPO Statutes 2018, Antitrust Principles, or require changes to the Principles and Criteria (P&C). Resolutions should be worded in a manner that allows for a clear 'For' or 'Against' vote, and should not contain multiple options.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW GA RESOLUTIONS

	Number of Seats
Oil Palm Growers	4*
Palm Oil Processors and/or Traders	2
Consumer Goods Manufacturers	2
Retailers	2
Banks / Investors	2
Environmental/Nature conservation NGOs	2
Social/Development NGOs	2

Advisors to the Board of Governors and Honorary Members

M.R. Chandran

Honorary Member

Prof. Bungaran Saragih

Chairman of Board of Trustees of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation

Alternate Board of Governance

Hugo Byrnes

Vice President Product Integrity, Royal Ahold, The Netherlands

John Clendon

Managing Director, Univanich Palm Oil PCL,Thailand

John Laidlow

HSBC

Olivier Tichit

Director of Sustainable Supply Chain, Musim Mas

Audrey Lee

OLAM

Izham Bin Mustaffa

Director Of Plantation Department FELDA

Harjinder Kler

HUTAN – Kinabatangan Orang-utan Conservation Programme (KOCP)

Mohamad Fadhil Hasan PhD

Corporate Affairs Director, PT Inti Indosawit Subur (Asian Agri Group)

Caroline Westerik-Sikking

Sustainable Palm Oil Manager, AAK Netherlands B.V.

Michael Guindon

Palm Oil Technical Advisor, Zoological Society of London (ZSL)

Lee Kuan Yee

Senior Sustainability Manager, KLK

Martin van Vaals

Senior Sustainability Expert at Rabobank

Yumie Kawashima Ms.

Manager of Environmental Management Team, Aeon Co., Ltd.

Girish Deshpande

Global Surfactants Business Planner & Palm Sustainability Leader, Procter & Gamble, UK

Martin Huxtable

Procurement Director Commodities, Unilever

Sander Van den Ende

Director of Environment & Conservation Department, SIPEF

Secretariat

Based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the RSPO Secretariat is in charge of the day-to-day running of the RSPO. Among other, it organizes the RSPO Board of Governors meetings, coordinates the Roundtable meetings and General Assemblies, and services RSPO members. It also coordinates the activities of the Standing Committees and Working Groups.