Pascal Van Nieuwenhuyse elected chair of the board of directors of Institut de recherche et de développement en agroenvironnement

Pascal Van Nieuwenhuyse was elected to a two-year term as chair of the board of directors of Institut de recherche et de développement en agroenvironnement (IRDA) at its annual general meeting held on April 9. He has been very involved as an IRDA director since March 2010, and served as acting chair following the retirement in December 2017 of Pierre Lemieux, the former vice president of UPA.

Pascal Van Nieuwenhuyse is an agricultural engineer with master’s degrees in rural economics and policy analysis from Université Laval. He has more than 30 years’ experience at Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation du Québec (MAPAQ), where he was director of agrifood education, managing director of Institut de Technologie Agroalimentaire in La Pocatière, as well as director of economic studies and sector support. In addition to his work at MAPAQ, he was a researcher at Université Laval, and was also responsible for setting up École supérieure de formation agricole in Angers, France.

The IRDA board members (below) look forward to supporting Pascal Nieuwenhuyse in his new role:

• Richard Lehoux, Vice-President
  Agricultural producer
• Julie Bilodeau, Treasurer
  Associate, Groupe RDL Québec
• Denise Audet
  Communications Officer, UPA
• Martin Caron
  Senior Vice-President, UPA
• Francis Desrochers
  President, Les producteurs de pommes de terre du Québec
• Richard Dion
  Second Vice-President, La Coop Avantis
• Isabelle T. Rivard
  Director, Créneau Accord / AgroBoréal

IRDA president and chief executive officer, Georges Archambault, acts as secretary of the board, and MAPAQ-designated resource person, Raynald Chassé, also attends board meetings.