The World Potato Congress has named Ellen Kouwenberg, a native of Prince Edward Island (PEI) and daughter of potato and beef farmers, as its new executive director. Educated at the University of UPEI and a student of International Business at the University of Copenhagen, she has travelled extensively throughout Europe and Russia exploring various business models.

Since those formative years, she has worked with the PEI Department of Agriculture in various capacities:  potato services, farm business management, international programs division. A secondment led her back to the private sector where she completed a feasibility study into and the establishment of the PEI Potato Quality Institute (PQI), a national accredited testing laboratory which she then managed and expanded.

After her departure from PQI, she has continued to work in the global potato network, collaborating on projects with American university potato variety research programs, expanding international technical and regulatory trade and farm biosecurity. She brings experience to the World Potato Congress through her global connections, facilitating incoming and outgoing agricultural missions and trade shows involving countries in North Africa, Central and South America, Philippines, the U.S. and the Middle East.

She currently resides with her husband and three children on a dairy farm with 285 milking head.

 Source:  World Potato Congress October 12, 2022 news release