During the plenary session of the 118th session of the Council of Members, the representatives of the IOC member countries elected the two new Deputy Executive Directors of the Organisation, who will take up their positions on 1 July 2024.
The Deputy Executive Director responsible for operational aspects (Research and Standardisation, Economics and Promotion, Olive Growing, Olive Technology and the Environment) will be Tunisian Abderraouf Laajimi, an agricultural engineer expert in agri-food marketing and with a PhD in economics, currently head of the cabinet of the Tunisian Minister of Agriculture and former Director General of the National Observatory for Agriculture (ONAGRI).
The next Deputy Executive Director in charge of administrative and financial issues and the Observatory will be Imdat Pekdemir from Türkiye, currently rapporteur in the Presidency Office, former consultant to the OECD and head of department in the Ministry of Education, with degrees in Political Science and Public Administration from the University of Ankara and in European Studies from the University of Exeter (UK).