The Sustainable Procurement Pledge (SPP) Announces Its First Executive Director

The Sustainable Procurement Pledge reaches another pivotal milestone in the appointment of Mélissa de Roquebrune as its first Executive Director. This appointment marks the beginning of a new era for the organization that has until now been completely volunteer-run.

Düsseldorf (Germany), November 1, 2022: In the month of its third anniversary , the Sustainable Procurement Pledge (SPP), an international grassroots and bottom-up movement of the global procurement profession, is proud to announce the appointment of its first Executive Director, Mélissa de Roquebrune. In 2020, the SPP turned into a non-profit organization under German law and reaches another decisive milestone with this step. 

Mélissa de Roquebrune has worked with some of the largest global NGOs in North America and Europe as well as with international partners, bringing more than 17 years of professional experience in the international NGO environment to the SPP. Originating from Montreal, Canada, Mélissa spent many years in India and has been based in Berlin for the last seven years. She will now put her in-depth knowledge in community building, international partnerships, and fundraising at the service of SPP’s goal of 1 million Procurement Professionals joining the movement by signing the Pledge by 2030 and the vision of a sustainable future for people and our planet. 

“This year has shown remarkable progress for the SPP. We organized  the inaugural World Sustainable Procurement Day in March, introduced the SPP League of Champions program for corporations that attracted thirteen renowned companies already, and launched the first 15 topic, industry, and country-specific SPP Chapters. The appointment of Mélissa as our first Executive Director is the culminating highlight and points the way to the future professional impact of our initiative”, said Bertrand Conquéret, CPO of Henkel and Co-Founder of the SPP.

Bertrand Conquéret and the CPO of Bayer, Thomas Udesen, jointly founded the Sustainable Procurement Pledge in October 2019 to put a spotlight on the role of procurement for a positive contribution towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to build up and to share knowledge on sustainable procurement practices. The SPP is fast approaching its 2022 growth target of 10,000 committed SPP Ambassadors, who currently represent Procurement Professionals from 145 countries.

“We are extremely excited about Mélissa joining the SPP as she can complement our community’s deep knowledge of Sustainable Procurement and the work of our Steering Team with an impressive track-record of hands-on experience in scaling up non-profit organizations and purpose-led movements”, said Thomas Udesen.

This appointment marks the beginning of a new era for the organization that has until now been entirely  volunteer-run by an international team of committed experts from procurement, sustainability, consulting and marketing.  Together with them, the SPP will be establishing an office under the leadership of Mélissa to support the volunteer networks that have brought the organization to this point.

“I am deeply honored by the trust and support I have been shown by Thomas and Bertrand as well as by the many volunteers, partners, Chapter Co-Chairs, and Ambassadors that make up the SPP community. Their passion and dedication to the SPP mission have inspired me and I look forward to being a part of it and helping drive the mission of the SPP forward”, said Mélissa de Roquebrune at her start.

Mélissa will take her new role on November 1, 2022. We invite you to join us in warmly welcoming Mélissa to our global SPP community.