February 1st, 2022, Brussels. The International Dairy Federation (IDF) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Sebastian Dates as Communications Manager. His main mission will be to contribute to the development of high-quality communications and public relations strategies and activities across all areas of the organization that represents the global dairy chain.

Sebastian Dates has over 20 years of experience in communications, advocacy and public affairs management for the agricultural sector in Argentina and Latin America. He has worked and contributed with some of the most prominent farming and dairy organizations of South America, like the Argentine Rural Society, FEPALE (Panamerican Dairy Federation), Rosario Board of Trade and Grupo Los Grobo, among others.

As Communications Manager, Sebastian Dates will play a key role to ensure an efficient flow of information between IDF and its members as well as to promote the science and technology that underpins the dairy sector and its activities. He will work closely with IDF’s Director General, Caroline Emond, and the rest of the organization in the development and execution of strategies and tools to generate engagement from associates, media and other stakeholders around the world. Mr. Dates will also focus on digital communications, web services and social media.

“We want to take IDF’s communications and public relations activities to the next level, and after a careful selection process we believe that based on his experience in the advocacy of the farming and dairy sectors of Latin America, Sebastian Dates can very much contribute to this goal”, states Ms. Caroline Emond, Director General of IDF.

“I am very proud to contribute to the communication of a global organization that represents a sector that works 24/7 to nourish the world with safe and nutritious products in sustainable ways. My aim is to help all actors of the dairy chain such as farmers, producers and dairy workers to communicate and show their efforts and its results”, explains Sebastian Dates.

IDF wishes Sebastian Dates every success in his new position.

BIO

Sebastian Dates has designed and managed communications and public affairs strategies for the agricultural sector for over 20 years, providing an innovative, unique perspective and understanding of how farming, media, public opinion and stakeholders intersect. He developed communications and public relations campaigns for many leading agribusiness organizations and dealt with severe reputation and communications crises as well as challenging issues successfully.

While working for the Argentine Rural Society, Sebastian advocated for the interests of producers and dairy farmers both in Argentina and the region vis à vis government intervention and distortive public policies for the sector. He also elaborated offline and digital campaigns to generate awareness and public opinion support for farmers and producers. One of the achievements feels most proud of is the abolition of the so-called 125 resolution which set mobile export rights for most agricultural and farming products.

Sebastian has also designed public relations strategies to deal with activist groups that oppose milk consumption and dairy farming by engaging respected influencers, such as well known physicians, scientists and experts, in favour of the dairy chain. On top of this, he collaborated in regional and hemispherical digital campaigns such as “Sí a la leche” (“say yes to milk”) issued by FEPALE (Panamerican Dairy Federation) from 2018 to 2021. During this period he worked closely with Daniel Pelegrina, former president of the Argentine Rural Society and current vice president of FEPALE, as well as Ariel Londinsky, Secretary General.

Reformulating complex ideas and theories is part of his expertise after working as Director of Institutional Relations at Universidad de San Andrés, one of Latin America’s leading universities, where he created and launched the Political-Institutional Satisfaction Index together with IPSOS, a 100% online permanent public opinion survey. This index became the university’s most demanded product by the media.

Sebastian gained wide experience in global reputation and issues management by participating in the internationalization process of Grupo Los Grobo, one of South America’s leading agribusiness companies, and contributing to its regional communication strategies as an external consultant.

On a personal level, Sebastian is an Argentine and Spanish citizen and speaks Spanish, English and French. He has a BA in Political Science and followed postgraduate studies on digital marketing and social media.