CCW General Assembly Re-elected Prof. Petar Stefanov for President

On May 19, 2026, Consumer Cooperatives Worldwide (CCW) organized a hybrid General Assembly, during which elections for President and Executive Committee took place.

The delegates of the General Assembly re-elected Prof. Petar Stefanov – President of Central Cooperative Union (CCU) - Bulgaria as President of CCW with the new mandate 2026-2030.

In his program, Prof. Stefanov focuses on the following main strategic workstreams:

   1. Strengthening cooperation through the exchange of good practices
   2. Implementing innovations and creating a statistical database
   3. Increasing competitiveness
   4. Establishing a COOP Academy for training of young cooperative leaders  
   5. Harmonising cooperative legislation and statutes
   6. Cooperation with other global sectoral organisations
   7. Contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals
   8. Strengthening the participation of consumer cooperatives in CM50 - Global Leadership Circle

The delegates of the General Assembly also elected a new Executive Committee as follows:

   1. Hector Jacquet - CEO of Cooperativa Obrera and Board Member of FACC, Argentina;
   2. Lukáš Němčík - Vice President of Coop Czech;
   3. Albino Russo - Director General of the National Association of Consumer Cooperatives (ANCC-Coop), Italy;
   4. Hiroyuki Shimada - Vice President of JCCU, Japan;
   5. Dato’ Kamarudin Ismail - Vice President of ANGKASA, Malaysia;
   6. Illia Gorokhovskyi - President of Coop Ukraine.

Among the new Executive Committee, the following were elected as Vice-Presidents:

   1. Hector Jacquet, Argentina - for the ICA Americas Region
   2. Dato’ Kamarudin Ismail, Malaysia – for the ICA Asia-Pacific Region
   3. Illia Gorokhovskyi, Ukraine – for the ICA Europe Region

Four national cooperative organizations were accepted as new members of Consumer Cooperatives Worldwide:

   1. Farm Credit Armenia;
   2. China Co-op;
   3. Central Union of Consumer Cooperatives, Moldova (MoldCoop);
   4. General Cooperative Alliance For Agriculture and Rural Development, Serbia.

The General Assembly was followed by a thematic seminar "Consumer Cooperatives for Progress and Innovation", during which the following colleagues shared their experience and good practices:

   1. Hiroyuki Shimada - Vice President of JCCU, Japan
   2. Illia Gorokhovskyi - President of COOP Ukraine
   3. Lukáš Němčík - Vice President of Coop Czech 
   4. Hector Jacquet - CEO Cooperativa Obrera and Board Member of FACC, Argentina.