Jordan Dey to Replace Longtime GrainPro Leader Phil Villers as President

Small GrainPro bags. Daily Coffee News photo.

Agricultural commodities packaging and storage specialist GrainPro, Inc., has announced the appointment of current vice president Jordan Dey to president, beginning Sept. 1.

Dey will replace Philippe “Phil” Villers, who will transition to GrainPro board chairman and senior fellow. Villers has been instrumental in growing GrainPro over the past 23 years from a two-person operation to a global business with sales throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

Villers is well known throughout the coffee trading industry as having an infectious passion what is an unlikely pursuit: the storage, packaging and handling of dried coffee, grains and other agricultural commodities for the benefit of all parties throughout the supply chain.

“It has been my life work to focus on improving the livelihoods of small farmers through the safe storage of grains,” Villers said in an announcement from GrainPro sent last week. “I will continue to support GrainPro and the efforts of the entire global team to help farmers and their families improve their lives by safely storing their hard-earned harvests.”

A GrainPro portable drying bed. Daily Coffee News photo.

As part of the personnel transition, the GrainPro corporate headquarters will move from Concord, Massachusetts, to Washington D.C., though a Concord office will remain, according to the company.

Before joining GrainPro in 2010, Dey served as a senior official with the UN World Food Program, eventually leading the U.S. operation. He had previously served as a senior advisor to the U.S. ambassador to the UN, focusing on improving the lives of refugees.

“Agriculture is the largest economic activity for more than a quarter of the world’s population,” Dey said. “We must do more to support their efforts to grow healthy food for their families and to make agriculture a sustainable livelihood. I look forward to expanding our impact across the globe, reducing hunger and poverty for small farmers.”