UEBT announces its new Board President who was elected by the Board of Directors. The new President, Angela Pinhati, serves as the Chief Sustainability Officer at Natura. She brings deep experience and skills to the role of governing the international nonprofit that promotes sourcing ingredients with respect for people and biodiversity.
“I am pleased to become the President of the Board of Directors of UEBT as we work towards our goals to promote biodiversity conservation and regeneration, and human well-being, in the sourcing of specialty ingredients,” said Ms. Pinhati. “I greatly appreciate this distinguished group of business leaders who serve on the UEBT Board and the esteemed external stakeholders who serve independently, all of whom have dedicated themselves to join us in addressing the pressing challenges and opportunities that the future holds.”
Ms. Pinhati has 32 years of executive experience, with 20 of those at Natura. She currently serves as Chief Sustainability Officer for Natura, a role she assumed in 2023 after holding positions leading multinational teams for supply chain, procurement, manufacturing and international operations. A chemical engineer with an MBA and a master’s degree in the environment, Ms. Pinhati also serves on the Board of the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development and is well-known both in Latin America and internationally for her deep understanding of ethical sourcing of ingredients from biodiversity. Her multicultural experience spans several countries in Latin America as well as in Europe, and she brings to the Board a strong blend of strategic and tactical expertise over her long and dedicated career.
As part of her work with Natura, she has been a champion of the company’s strong programs and deep relationships with more than 10,000 smallholder family farmers from 44 communities in the Amazon region, where the company sources natural ingredients over the past 25 years, such as Brazil nuts, Andiroba, Ucuuba and others for its EKOS line of beauty and personal care products.
Ms. Pinhati explained that Natura “had the honour to join UEBT as a founding member” all the way back in 2009. “We wanted to raise the awareness of ‘sourcing with respect’ both within our company but also spread this message to other businesses in our sector and beyond. As part of this 15-year partnership, we most recently achieved a regenerative practices certification from UEBT for our Brazil nut supply chain in the Amazon. This was part of a regenerative pilot assessment on six key Natura communities, using the UEBT global standard and UEBT’s regenerative programme’s indicators, including conducting a living income and living wage analysis. More broadly, this is part of Natura’s public goals, and our ongoing commitments to Brazilian biodiversity and traditional knowledge. Over the last 25 years, we have worked to promote more resilient ecosystems and thriving human societies through a business model based on the standing forest economy. My service on the UEBT Board helps to connect these commitments and activities to the wider business collective and address global challenges in a pre-competitive manner with other like-minded companies”.
Ms. Pinhati succeeds Mr. Eder Ramos of Symrise, who served as UEBT’s Board President from August 2022 to December 2024 and who recently retired from Symrise after 41 years with the company, most recently as the President of their SFA-Neroli Group and prior to that as the Global President of their Fragrance Division.
The UEBT General Assembly, consisting of all UEBT members, elects the Board of Directors, which governs UEBT and gives strategic direction to UEBT staff in support of the nonprofit’s mission and vision. The Board President is recommended by the Nominating Committee of the Board and subsequently elected by Board members.
