Fair Trade USA Founder Rice Steps Down
After 26 years, Fair Trade USA Founder and CEO Paul Rice is calling it a career. He will finish 2024 in the role of Founder to help with a transition and will remain with the organization as a member of its Advisory Council in 2025.
Felipe Arango, Fair Trade’s chief operating officer, will serve as interim CEO while a search for a permanent replacement for Rice is conducted.
"Paul’s visionary leadership and dedication have transformed Fair Trade USA into a global force for good,” said Ricardo Crisantes, Fair Trade USA board chair. “On behalf of the board and all whose lives have been impacted, thank him for his many years of extraordinary service."
Rice launched Fair Trade USA (formerly known as TransFair USA) in 1998 from a small warehouse in Oakland, Calif. Under his leadership, the organization became the leading certifier of Fair Trade products in North America, partnering with more than 1,500 brands and retailers.
“I’m so proud of the impact that we and our stakeholders have had during the last 26 years,” Rice said. “We have helped improve the lives of millions of hardworking farmers and workers, building hope for a better future. We have shown corporate America that ethical sourcing is good not just for people and planet, but also for the bottom line. And we have helped consumers realize that they can change the world through something as simple as a cup of coffee, a banana, or a T-shirt.”
Fair Trade USA now certifies a broad range of consumer products, including coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, produce, dairy, fish, apparel, home goods, and more. Consumer awareness of the Fair Trade Certified label has grown to 65%. By 2024, the organization had generated $1.2 billion in cumulative financial impact for more than 1.6 million farmers and workers in more than 53 countries.
Arango has spent more than 20 years advancing the Fair Trade and sustainability movements. He has served as Fair Trade USA’s Chief Operating Officer since 2023 and has held positions leading sustainable development in coffee, cocoa, produce, textiles and floral.
He served as a Technical Advisor and Pilots Lead for the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) where he advanced a global framework for management and disclosure of nature-related risks and opportunities, aimed at shifting global finance towards nature-positive outcomes.
