Singapore-headquartered Golden Agri-Resources (GAR) has hired Carolyn Lim from rival palm oil company Musim Mas as director of global impact.
Lim worked for Musim Mas for more than 13 years, latterly managing the company’s communications function.
She will report to GAR’s chief sustainability and communications officer Anita Neville.
Lim’s role will involve working on sustainability governance and standards, and overseeing climate action, biodiversity, human rights, and social impact programmes in line with the company’s Collective for Impact sustainability framework, GAR told Eco-Business.
GAR’s sustainability focus areas include working towards 100 per cent traceability to plantation for all of its mills and achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
At Musim Mas, Lim was responsible for the overall communications strategy and execution. Communications issues she has managed in recent years include the due diligence of a sustainability-linked loan and links to deforestation in Indonesia’s Leuser ecosystem.
Before joining Musim Mas, the Singaporean worked in sustainability and environmental management roles. She previously worked for CSR Asia, a sustainability consultancy acquired in 2017, and palm oil giant Wilmar.
Rob Nicholls led Musim Mas’ smallholders unit. Image: Musim Mas
Also leaving Musim Mas is Rob Nichols, who led the company’s highly-regarded smallholders division for eight years, training farmers with small plots of land in sustainable cultivation methods and yield improvement.
The Australian has gone freelance and is expected to continue working on sustainability and smallholder-related initiatives in an independent capacity.
Nicholls has more than 25 years of experience working in the palm oil industry across Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
Musim Mas has not responded to queries about replacements for Lim and Nicholls, both executives who played key roles in the company’s sustainability ambitions.
Their departures mark a period of change for the company run by owner Bachtiar Karim, who has led one of Indonesia’s largest palm oil conglomerates for several decades, taking over the helm after his father’s passing in 1997.
