Diane Holdorf is Managing Director of Food and Nature at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), based in Geneva, Switzerland, since December 2018 In this role she leads business efforts to accelerate the much-needed system transformation in the areas of food, nature and water. With members and partners, this work brings leadership standards and tools, advocacy and projects across the value chain – from production to consumption – which deliver impact at scale where the urgent agendas of climate, nature and food systems intersect
Before joining WBCSD, Diane was Vice President, Chief Sustainability Officer for Kellogg Company. She joined Kellogg in May 2008 as Senior Director, Environmental Stewardship and in 2009 was promoted to Vice President, Environmental Stewardship, Health and Safety. In 2011, she was promoted to Chief Sustainability Officer, Vice President Environment, Health & Safety and in 2015, in recognition of the increasing importance of sustainability across the Kellogg business, became Vice President, Chief Sustainability Officer to focus full time on advancing Kellogg’s sustainability leadership efforts.
Prior to joining Kellogg, Diane served as vice president for Delta Consultants (now Antea), a U.S.A-based environment, health and safety and sustainability consulting firm. During her 17 years with Delta Consultants, she served in numerous management and consulting roles, based in the US and in the UK, where she worked with many consumer packaged goods, forest products and manufacturing companies in development and implementation of global programs for corporate responsibility, environmental management and risk management.
Diane’s board experience includes serving as a corporate officer during her years as Managing Director of a UK-based joint venture while with Delta, as well as serving as secretary of the board for Inogen Environmental Alliance, a global business of which Delta was a member.
In 2015, Diane was recognized as a Maize and Wheat Super Woman by CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center) as part of the United Nation’s International Women’s Day in 2015. She is also recognized as an Oxfam Sisters on the Planet Ambassador.
Ms Holdorf received Bachelor’s degrees in Public Communications and in German from Syracuse University. She also completed the Executive MBA Program at the University of St. Thomas.
In addition to her role at Kellogg, Diane served on the Advisory Board of We Mean Business, and on the Executive Advisory Board of the Graham Sustainability Institute at the University of Michigan.