Board Members
Fairtrade Africa is guided by a single continental Board. The seven-member Board brings together four producer representatives and three independent members.
Producer Board Members:
Ms. Hend Kassab – Chairperson
Middle East and North Africa Network
Ms. Hend Kassab is the Quality & Corporate Affairs Director at Daltex Corporation, bringing over thirty years of diverse experience in quality systems management, operational management, social responsibility, women’s empowerment, administration, purchasing, and staff management.
Throughout her career, she has held senior roles including Operations Director, Quality Manager, Office Manager and Administrator, Purchasing and Administration Manager, and PR and Marketing Consultant.
She holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Howard University (Washington, D.C.), a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication from the American University in Cairo, and a high school diploma from the English School, Heliopolis.
In addition, Hend has completed extensive professional training in governance, agribusiness management, food safety management, auditing, supply chain management, and ISO standards.
She currently serves as Vice Chair of Fairtrade International and Board Chair of Fairtrade Africa. Ms. Kassab is from Egypt.
Mr. Moses Mwenje Njeru – Vice Chairperson
East & Central Africa Network
Moses Mwenje Njeru is a leader and entrepreneur with over two decades of experience spanning engineering, humanitarian logistics, academia, and agribusiness governance.
He serves in the Governance and Market Steering Commitee at Fairtrade Africa, is a founding Chairman of the Kenya Tea Network and the former Chair of Mungania Tea Factory, a Fairtrade-certified Small Producer Organization.
Moses began his career as a Production Engineer at SAFAL Group, later supporting humanitarian operations with Kello Brown & Root in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan, before transitioning into agricultural leadership.
He holds a Bachelor's in Business Management, a Higher National Diploma in Mechanical Engineering, and is completing a Master's in Supply Chain Management.
Mr. Kobena Maizan - Board Member
West Africa Network
Kobena Maizan holds a degree in Environmental Studies and was born in eastern Côte d'Ivoire. He joined the Fairtrade system in 2015 through sustainability programs in cocoa cooperatives on behalf of Cargill West Africa, and has spent 11 years working on Fairtrade issues and sustainability programs with cocoa and cashew producers.
He has served on the boards of RICE and COOPCAKF, and engages regularly with regional networks including FTGN Ghana, PNCB Burkina Faso, PNC Togo, and the Benin network. He is a member of Fairtrade Côte d'Ivoire's advocacy and policy committee and the EQUITE 3 program's advocacy committee.
He holds a CEMBA in Leadership and Business Management and a Technician's Certificate in Environment and Quality of Life.
Ms. Thuli Mdluli – Board member
Southern Africa Network
Thuli is a respected sugarcane farmer from Mavalela One (Pty) Ltd, a Fairtrade Certified Producer Organisation in Eswatini. A retired professional teacher, she has dedicated her life to education, mentorship, and community development, and remains active in the Eswatini Fairtrade Producer Country Network, championing farmer empowerment, good governance, gender equality, and youth inclusion.
Representing producers within Fairtrade Africa's Southern African Network, she advocates for stronger sugar farmer representation, fair market access, climate resilience, capacity building, and transparency in Fairtrade Premium use.
A trusted leader combining professional leadership with hands-on farming experience, she is a passionate advocate for women, youth, and small-scale farmers, committed to transparent, inclusive leadership across Southern Africa.
Independent Board Directors:
Mr. Kojo Darpaah, CFA - Finance and Auditing
Kojo Darpaah is Director, Markets at Fidelity Bank, where he leads the Financial and Capital Markets franchises. He brings over a decade of senior leadership experience in treasury management, trading, and markets development.
He previously served as Treasurer at Universal Merchant Bank and as Head of Trading at FNB Ghana, where he established the Global Markets and Treasury functions. Earlier, he was Assistant Vice President, Fixed Income at Barclays Ghana, earning the Barclays Africa Markets Best Trader Award.
Kojo is a CFA Charterholder and holds an MSc in Financial Engineering from Claremont Graduate University, California, and a BSc in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Ghana.
Mr. Daouda Kouakou - Strategy and Donor Relations
Daouda is an agricultural engineer and senior sustainability professional with over 15 years of experience across cocoa value chains, sustainable sourcing, governance, and partnership development in Africa and Europe.
He founded ANOUANZE COOP GROUP and previously served as Managing Director of CABOZ Côte d'Ivoire, managing roughly 15,000 metric tons of annual cocoa sourcing.
As an independent consultant for GIZ and GFA Consulting Group, he trained 7,500 smallholder farmers across Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Liberia on sustainable production and certification standards.
He serves on Fairtrade Africa's Governance Committee and, since March 2026, as Advisory Board Member of the EUDR Community of Practice. He holds advanced qualifications in agricultural and environmental sciences and speaks French, English, and German.
Mr. Tonda Victor Chinangwa - Governance & Legal
Tonda brings over 19 years of executive leadership across public, statutory, and private sectors, plus more than 10 years of board service.
He currently serves on four boards, including as Vice Chairperson of World Vision International Malawi. Since October 2021, he has been CEO of the Tea Association of Malawi (TAML) and Director of the Tea Research Foundation, representing nine commercial tea producers and over 22,000 smallholder producers.
Previously, he was Legal Director and Company Secretary for JTI Leaf Malawi, JTI Leaf Zambia, and Malawi Broadcasting Corporation.
He led an industry-wide initiative digitising payments for over 30,000 workers and 15,000 smallholder tea producers, and spearheaded a toll-free worker complaints mechanism strengthening protection and accountability across the tea sector.
