Ruud Tijssens is Chairman of the International Feed Industry Federation for 2024-2025, a post he had held since his first election at IFIF’s 34th Annual General Assembly on 21 September 2021.
On 17 November 2023, IFIF’s 36th General Assembly unanimously re-elected Ruud Tijssens as IFIF Chairman for the 2024-2025 term of office, recognizing Mr. Tijssens’ successful leadership since 2021 under which IFIF experienced important growth in strategic projects and continued to build deeper relationships with stakeholders around the globe.
Mr. Tijssens has held a number of leadership positions within IFIF, having previously served as Chair of IFIF’s Sustainability Steering Group as well as a member of the IFIF Executive Committee and the IFIF Board of Directors.
He has more than thirty years of diverse executive experience in the Agri and Food sector, with a focus on Innovation, Research & Development, Management and Governance processes. Mr. Tijssens spent ten years in the European dairy industry before moving to the animal feeds industry in 2001, first with CCL and later with CHV.L-BB. When that firm merged with Agrifirm in 2010, he became Director Public & Cooperative Affairs, and is responsible for CSR (Corporate and Social Responsibility) for the combined companies.
Throughout his career, he has served as a Board member and Chairman in a number of foundations, high-level advisory groups and feed industry associations at national and international level. Mr. Tijssens is currently the Chairman of the Knowledge & Innovation Agenda Mission team on Climate Agreement sub table agriculture & land utilization, and does have the task of Quarter maker Innovation Ambassador on behalf of the Dutch government focusing on the agricultural sector.
He was until recently Vice-Chair of the Global Feed LCA Institute (GFLI) and a Member of the Review Commission TO2 of Dutch the Ministry of Economic Affairs. He was President of the European Feed Manufacturers’ Federation (FEFAC) until June 2017 and, since 2012, has chaired a research consortium formed by the Dutch feed industry, Wageningen University and the Dutch Government.
Mr. Tijssens holds degrees in Chemical Technology, University of Technology Eindhoven (Propaedeutic and Candidates degree) and University of Technology Delft (Master Science).
