The 15 representatives of the Steering Committee of the National Federation of Coffee Growers will meet today to analyze from scratch the resumes of the candidates to replace Roberto Velez Vallejo, who resigned from the union last December because President Gustavo Petro asked him to.
The complaint of many is that with the new government the conditions for choosing a manager changed and today they will blindly select the 10 best profiles out of a total of 45 people nominated, according to EL TIEMPO, without a prior analysis of the resumes.
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Although before the departmental committees nominated the candidates, now it was the interested parties themselves who presented themselves to a public call, which allowed more people outside the coffee to participate.
In addition to it, the Federation has not yet published an official list. Nor does the Steering Committee know her beyond the names that have been mentioned publicly, so today, in a very short time, she will have to make the selection.
For example, in 2015, the coffee growers nominated the candidates and the day the call was closed the list was made public. On that occasion, the ternados were Vélez, who at that time was Colombia’s ambassador to Japan; Luis Guillermo Vélez, former Superintendent of Companies, and Adriana Mejía Cuartas, representative of the Federation in Europe.
According to the coffee analyst Guillermo Trujillo, this new process is not the right position that lends itself so that there is a greater probability of management in the election of the manager of one of the most important unions in the country.
The process will continue next week. The National Committee, made up of representatives of the coffee departments and the Government such as the Ministers of Finance, Agriculture and Foreign Trade, will meet to analyze the 10 resumes and choose the names that will make up the shortlist that will be dealt with in the Extraordinary Coffee Congress on April 18.
the rattle
Two names are the ones that are playing the most in the race to replace the manager: Maria Claudia Lacouture and Felipe Robayo.
The first was president of ProColombia and Minister of Commerce of the Government of Juan Manuel Santos and currently serves as president of the Colombian American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham Colombia) and leads the Aliadas union. Due to her fluid communication with ministers like José Antonio Ocampo, it is said that she could have her support. If she wins the contest, she would be the first woman to reach management.
If she wins the contest, María Claudia Lacouture would be the first woman to reach management.
Cesar Melgarejo / EL TIEMPO
Robayo has always been linked to the world of coffee and was for two years (October 2015 – March 2017) commercial manager of the Federation. Currently he has support from committees such as those of Cauca and Nariño.
“In the environment of the special and differentiated coffees that Nariño coffee produces, we had the opportunity to work together with Robayo when he held the commercial management of the Federation. We believe that his professional suitability makes him the best candidate our institution can have. His knowledge of the sector, his technical capacity and his impeccable ethical character, of which the Federation can attest, make him a unique candidate to lead the Federation in these times of change and coffee challenges,» says a letter from Carlos Alberto Eraso, president of the Departmental Committee of Coffee Growers of Nariño, sent the President.
Germán Alberto Bahamón Jaramillo, president of Apple Colombia, ran to be the next manager of the National Federation of Coffee Growers.
Other names that have been mentioned are the director of the Federation in Amsterdam, Carolina Castañeda Gaviria; former Comptroller Sandra Morelli; and Germán Alberto Bahamón Jaramillo, current general manager of Apple Colombia, who comes from a family of producers in Huila. He is the brother of model and businesswoman Claudia Bahamón.
Luis Mauricio Rivera, from Huila, applied to be manager of the National Federation of Coffee Growers.
The businessman Edwin Valencia Rodríguez, director at Floval Group Inv., also passed on his resume from this coffee department. -Colombia, and Luis Mauricio Rivera, manager of the Central Coffee Growers Cooperative of Huila.
Adriana Mejía, who participated in the shortlist in 2015, would have also applied for her candidacy again.
And although at first it was said that the governor of Huila, Luis Enrique Dussán, was going to aspire, in the end he would not be there.
What is the schedule?
-March 9: The Steering Committee will meet and evaluate the resumes received and will make a selection of a maximum of 10 based on the established criteria and profile.
-From March 13 to 17: The National Committee will meet and analyze the 10 resumes selected by the Steering Committee with the documentary supports and their annexes and will agree on and approve the names that will make up the shortlist to be presented to the National Congress of Coffee Growers. At least one of the shortlisted members must be a woman.
-From March 21 to 31: The shortlisted candidates will present their proposals and/or programs to each of the 15 departmental committees of coffee growers at their respective headquarters. The FNC will establish the schedule and the rules for the presentation of the candidates and will finance the tour of the candidates to the headquarters of the committees.
-April 18th: An Extraordinary Coffee Congress will be held to elect the new manager from the shortlist presented by the Committee.