The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), the parent organization of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), has announced that Frans Muller, President and CEO of Ahold Delhaize, and Dirk Van de Put, Chairman and CEO of Mondelēz International, will assume the role of Co-Chairs of CGF, with the vision of driving faster industry-wide action on urgent global challenges.

Mr. Muller and Mr. Van de Put are preceded by James Quincey, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, and Daniel Zhang, Chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group.

On June 7, 2023, at CGF’s Global Summit in Kyoto, Japan, the new Co-Chairs spoke about their desire to accelerate a greater combined impact for people and the planet by driving action at scale across CGF’s broad membership. CGF unites CEOs from more than 400 member companies across 70 countries—including Ajinomoto, Alibaba, The Coca-Cola Company, Carrefour, Danone, Grupo Exito, Nestlé, Tesco, Unilever, and Walmart—providing a forum for driving positive change in the consumer goods sector.

Recognizing the diverse nature of CGF’s membership, such as the different pressures, priorities and regional factors facing each company, the new Co-Chairs are focused on mobilizing members around a set of shared actions that aim to deliver a major positive impact.

CGF has eight Coalitions of Action, which will continue to drive collective progress on forests, human rights, plastics, healthier lives, food waste, food safety, supply chains and product data. As well as maintaining the momentum of each Coalition, the Co-Chairs have identified a series of critical focus areas: tackling deforestation, moving to a circular economy for plastics, protecting human rights, boosting employee health and wellbeing, and supporting faster reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

CGF will continue to share its progress against key areas on a regular basis, including at milestone events such as its Sustainable Retail Summit in Copenhagen in October 2023.