AVEC GENERAL ASSEMBLY BRUGES

President of VIP-België vzw, the professional association of Belgian poultry slaughterhouses and cutting plants.

Managing director of Klaasen & C°, poultry slaughterhouses specialised in spent hens, Pluvera & Wilki brand

Gert-Jan Oplaat is a Dutch entrepreneur, director and politician. Oplaat comes from a farming family from Markelo (Overijssel). In 1982, he became part of a large agricultural enterprise. The family business specialized in the production of vaccine eggs and breeders.

He was chairman of the Dutch Poultry Farmers' Union for seven years when he was nominated in September 2014 as chairman of the Association of the Dutch Poultry Processing Industry (NEPLUVI).  On September 9, 2022, he was elected as president of AVEC.

He has been a member of the House of Representatives in Netherlands from 1998 to 2006 on behalf of the VVD. Until November 26, 2014, Oplaat was chairman of the VVD Overijssel.

During the farmers' protests against the nitrogen policy, he announced that he had joined the BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB) and was elected in the Dutch Senate in June 2023.

Oplaat is married and has two children from a previous relationship. In his spare time he does cabaret and singing.

DENIS REDONNET is an economist by training, and started his career as a corporate banker for a French bank in the city of London.

Since 1995 he has been a career European Commission official, having held positions in the monetary, international economic affairs and internal market directorate generals of the EU Executive.

He served as advisor to EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and a Deputy chief of staff to EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.

Afterwards he headed the WTO division and then the Strategy division in the Directorate General for Trade in the European Commission. 

Between 2015 and 2020 he acted as Director for "WTO, Legal Affairs and Trade in Goods" in the Directorate General for Trade in the European Commission.

In July 2020 he was appointed Deputy Director General and Chief Trade Enforcement Officer in the Directorate General for Trade in the European Commission.

Since 2017, Birthe Steenberg has been Secretary General of AVEC, The Association of Poultry Processors and Poultry Trade in the EU countries. The 19 members of AVEC are national organisations for the production of poultry meat in 17 different European countries.

Birthe Steenberg leads the strategic direction of the association together with her team, board and the President of AVEC. Birthe’s team is based in the heart of Brussels, Belgium, close to policy makers and other stakeholders where Birthe is building the bridge between the poultry sector, policy and future legislation. Birthe has a broad and extensive international network that she actively uses in order to increase the visibility of the poultry sector in Europe and beyond.

Birthe Steenberg ‎ has strong knowledge and expertise in the food and agriculture sector and has more than 20 years of experience in European public affairs, interest representation and strategic management.

Previously, Birthe worked as Chief Consultant in The Danish Agriculture & Food Council in Copenhagen, Denmark. From 2012 to 2017, Birthe was the Manager of the Danish Poultry Meat Federation.

Birthe has a degree in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Copenhagen, and she is a member of The Executive Committee of the International Poultry Council as well as a series of committees including the European Commission Animal Welfare Platform, European Food Security Crisis preparedness and response mechanism, Advisory Group - Food Chain and Animal and Plant Health and Civil Dialog Group on Animal Products - Poultry meat and Eggs.

Birthe’s motto is action creates change.

Economic resilience of the poultry meat sector 

Nan-Dirk Mulder joined Rabobank’s Food & Agribusiness Advisory and Research department (FAR) in 2001. He is Senior Global Specialist Animal Protein and he is based in Rabobank’s headquarter in Utrecht, NL.
He holds a Master in Agricultural Economics, marketing and market research from the Netherlands’ Wageningen Agricultural University, NL.

JACQUES  VAN OUTRYVE is bio-engineer by training and agricultural journalist by profession. He was deputy editor of ‘Boer & Tuinder’, the weekly of the Flemish farmers association Boerenbond, and has followed the common agricultural policy (CAP) closely as journalist from the eighties until now. He is past-president of the Belgian Association of Agricultural Journalists (BVLJ-ABJA) and is still guest lecturer ‘Agricultural Policy and Food Safety’ at the VIVES University for Applied Sciences. He is a sought-after guest speaker in Belgium and abroad.

Rob de Wijk is the founder (2007) and non-executive director of The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS). HCSS helps governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector to understand the fast-changing environment and seeks to anticipate the challenges of the future with policy solutions and advice.

Currently, he is also Professor of International Relations at Leiden University (since 2000) and columnist for the national daily Trouw.

Ancillary positions he had in The Netherlands and abroad: chairman of the National Security Think Tank (Denktank Nationale Veiligheid), chairman of Holland Space Cluster, member of the Strategic Advisors Group of the Atlantic Council in Washington and ‘Senior Steering Group’ of NATO Special Forces Headquarters in Mons and Roadmap Next Economy. Currently he is a member of The Alphen Group (TAG) en Vaduz Round Table.

Steph Ghislain joined Eurogroup for Animals in 2017 and led its Trade and Animal Welfare Programme up until 2022. Since then, she has been leading the organisation's political team, covering all aspects of Eurogroup for Animals's advocacy. Before that, Steph worked for six years in a consultancy firm, mostly advising clients on EU trade policy. 

Inês Ajuda, DVM, joined Eurogroup for Animals in 2020 as the head of the farm animals team. Before her current role, Inês Ajuda practised as a dairy vet in Portugal and researched animal welfare indicators. Ines started her journey working in the NGO sector as an animal welfare advisor for food-producing companies.