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66 Tea & Coffee Trade Journal | www.teaandcoffee.net John K. DeMuria Named Chairman of National Coffee Association John K. "JD" DeMuria, managing director of Volcafe USA, Somerset, N.J., has assumed the top spot at the National Coffee Association of U.S.A. (NCA), New York, N.Y. As chair- man of the NCA Board of Directors, the New York native will lead the NCA in its role as advocate, educator, and service provider to a membership that represents over 90 percent of U.S. coffee commerce. "I am honored and privileged to take on the responsibility of NCA Chair," said DeMuria. "Now celebrating its 105 th anni- versary, the NCA was one of the first trade associations established in the U.S. and remains the primary voice of our industry. We combine the solid experience of a distinguished history with strategic vision and leadership as the only trade group to represent all sectors of our industry." DeMuria has served on the NCA Board for eight years, and as the vice chairman for the last two years. During his eight-year tenure, he has played an active role in the Association, and taken a variety of leadership roles on NCA committees, task forces and strategic planning forums. Among them are chairman of the board-level Performance Oversight Monitoring Committee and an active member of the executive task force charged with commissioning the industry's first economic impact study to identify the size and impact of the industry on the U.S. economy. DeMuria has more than 35 years of experience in the coffee industry, beginning his career at Volkart Brothers in 1982 and then became a partner at Madison Coffee Co. in 1990. He returned to Volcafe (for- merly Volkart Brothers) in 1999 and is currently the firm's managing director. FNC Appoints Carolina Casteñada Director of European Office The Colombia Coffee Growers Federation (FNC) has appointed Carolina Casteñada as director of their Europe office based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Casteñada has over nine years of green coffee trading expe- rience. She has a B.S. in physics, a B.A. in economics, a minor in mathematics, a minor in finance and a Master's degree in econom- ics from Los Andes University in Bogotá, as well as a Master's degree in mathematics and finance from New York University. She started her professional career as an economic research intern at the foreign reserves depart- ment of Colombia's Central Bank, Banco de la República. Prior to joining the Federation, she was senior research ana- lyst for the U.S. and Japan and covered the FX and derivatives trading desk at Bancolombia, Colombia's largest bank. Casteñada started working for the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation in Bogotá in October 2006. In April 2007, she joined the Federation's office in New York as director of investments and spe- cial projects, managing green coffee sales and the 100 percent Colombian Coffee Program. At the beginning of 2015, she was appointed senior director of green coffee trading for North America. Since she started working at the Federation's office in New York, the total volume of green coffee traded has tripled. Willy Foote of Root Capital to Be Honored at CQI Luncheon The Coffee Quality Institute (CQI), Long Beach, Calif., announced that Willy Foote, founder and CEO of Root Capital, based in Cambridge, Mass., is being honored as its 2016 Leadership Medal of Merit recipient. CQI is recognizing Foote's accomplishments in creating rural prosperity in some of the poorest and most challenging places on the planet. His vision to enable small-scale farmers to produce sustainable, quality products through critical investments, financial management training, and market link- ages has had a profound impact on people and communities. Guy Burdett, president of I n t e r A m e r i c a n Coffee, Houston, Texas, and a part- ner of Root Capital, said, "In the past, small coffee farmers typically did not have access to traditional loans from banks and had to borrow from middlemen at high interest rates. Willy Foote and Root Capital saw the incredible need to develop programs and training to get much needed financing to small coffee growers, many of whom are producing top quality coffee. Root Capital took a tremendous risk to provide access to credit, and to date they have successfully loaned nearly one billion dollars to the people who need it most." The Leadership Medal of Merit is CQI's most prestigious honor and has been presented at SCAA's annual exposi- tion for a decade. It is given to an extraor- dinary person who embodies CQI's mis- sion to improve coffee quality and the lives of people who produce it. Past recipients include Sunalini Menon (Coffee Board of India), Timothy Schilling (World Coffee Research), Lindsey Bolger (Keurig Green Mountain), and Sergio Fajardo (Governor of Antioquia, Colombia). To learn more about CQI's 18 th Annual Luncheon, that will be held on April 16 th at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta in conjunction with SCAA's annual symposium and expo, and how to become a sponsor, please visit: www.coffeeinstitute.org/about-us/ luncheon. people news 66 Tea & Coffee Trade Journal | www.teaandcoffee.net www.zwirnerei-wutach.com mailto:info@zwirnerei-wutach.com Zwirnerei_TC May11 5/12/11 12:59 PM P