News

ICAC Business Development Manager Caroline Taco Named Executive Director Ad Interim

 

 For Immediate Release 
 
Date Posted: 3 January 2023             
 
ICAC Business Development Manager Caroline Taco Named Executive Director Ad Interim
Effective with the close of business at the end of 2022, Mr Kai Hughes is no longer serving as Executive Director of the International Cotton Advisory Committee. H.E.M. Aly Touré, Chairman of the Standing Committee, announced that starting 1 January 2023, ICAC Business Development Manager Ms Caroline Taco has been appointed to serve as Executive Director on an ad interim basis, pending the selection of a new Executive Director. The process for the selection of a new Executive Director will be announced shortly.
 
Ms Taco joined the Secretariat in 2001 and is its longest-serving member. She will continue to also serve as Business Development Manager. Ms Taco has attended every ICAC Plenary Meeting since 2001 and has extensive experience, including the preparation of budgets, managing the flow of publications and Committee documents.
 
Mr Hughes served as Executive Director of the ICAC for five years and had many notable achievements. The Committee wishes him well as he pursues new opportunities.
 
In her inaugural remarks as Executive Director ad interim, Ms Taco said that cotton is one of the few industries in the world that can be truly said to ‘touch’ the lives of nearly every person on the planet almost every day. She pointed out that the ICAC provides public infrastructure that enables improvement through industry action. The ICAC brings together governments and the private sector from producing, consuming and trading countries representing all sectors of the value chain. Over its 80+ years of existence, the ICAC has contributed concretely to the lives of people in the cotton industry by facilitating cotton-friendly government policies, providing information for decision-making and by developing and disseminating technology. She highlighted that world cotton yields are higher, earnings are greater, and demand is stronger because of the work that the ICAC has been doing since 1939.
 
Ms Taco thanked the Standing Committee for the opportunity to serve as Executive Director ad interim and added that the work of the Secretariat would continue uninterrupted as Member Governments conduct the search for a new Executive Director.

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About the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC)
Formed in 1939, the ICAC is an association of cotton producing, consuming and trading countries. It acts as a catalyst for change by helping member countries maintain a healthy world cotton economy; provides transparency to the world cotton market by serving as a clearinghouse for technical information on cotton production; and serves as a forum for discussing cotton issues of international significance. In addition, members can take advantage of the ICAC’s global network of cotton researchers, whose expertise covers the supply chain from farm to textile manufacturing, and have free access to its cutting-edge technologies like the voice-based app and virtual technology cotton training programme. Committed to ensuring cotton’s continued sustainability, the ICAC is the only intergovernmental commodity body covering cotton that is recognised by the United Nations. For more information, please visit www.icac.org, Twitter or LinkedIn.