In June, Peter O’Driscoll, executive director of the Equitable Food Initiative, announced his plans to step down from his role at the Equitable Food Initiative (EFI) and usher in a new leader to guide the organization into its next chapter. On Jan. 12, the EFI board of directors answered that call by naming Gonzalo Martinez de Vedia as its next executive director.
Martinez de Vedia brings to this post deep roots in philanthropy and agricultural labor practices, having previously served as the program director for the Solidarity Center in Brazil. His history with EFI is well-established as he has collaborated with the organization since 2018 and has served on its board since early 2025.
“I have long admired the way EFI brings everyone to the table, and I look forward to the chance to lead the organization into the next decade,” Martinez de Vedia says in an announcement.
And O’Driscoll says he will continue to support EFI, noting that just because his role as executive director comes to an end, that does not mean his involvement does, too.
“There’s so much really exciting and challenging opportunities for EFI that if I can continue to support that without getting in the way; that’s really all I’m thinking about right now … I’m very committed to this organization,” he says. “I’m very committed to Gonzalo’s success. I’m going to do whatever I can to make him successful, whether it’s by continuing to support or by getting out of the way.”
Building for Scale
O’Driscoll, who has led the organization for 14 years, says he doesn’t see this transition as a retirement, but to usher Equitable Food Initiative into the next decade. He says his passion lies in the startup phase of an organization, and he sees so much opportunity for growth. He believes bringing Martinez de Vedia into the role can help the organization accomplish that goal.
“EFI should grow five times more, and all of those things, but the challenges that EFI faces now are much more the challenges of growth and management,” he says. “They’re not startup challenges anymore, and I don’t think I’m particularly good at that. I didn’t grow up wanting to be the CEO of a big company. That’s a particular skill set that I don’t have or necessarily aspire to having. I do think I’m pretty good at figuring it out from the very beginning.”
O’Driscoll also says he sees important inflection points in an organization with the integration of new leadership and ideas.
“I don’t believe anybody should run an organization forever,” he says. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s a company, a nonprofit or a government. There’s something really, really healthy about periodic changes in perspective. None of us knows everything. New people come in with fresh perspectives.”
The timing also aligned with EFI’s strategic planning cycle, O’Driscoll says, which will begin this year with an eye to 2030.
“What I said to my board, even last year, was, ‘You don’t want me sticking around until 2030. You should start thinking now about how to find the person who’s going to develop and implement that plan,’” he says. “’They need to be part of developing the plan that they’re going to then be held accountable to.’”
Transparent Search for New Leadership
O’Driscoll says the hiring committee, spearheaded by Candace Mickens, EFI’s director of finance and operations, helped design the process. EFI fielded applications from more than 200 candidates.
“The feedback was extraordinary, even from the candidates that didn’t go through [the final selection],” he says. “They said this was the best selection process they had ever seen. I take pride in that, just because that’s my colleagues who pulled that off.”
And, O’Driscoll says, because transparency is at the forefront of the organization, he spent an hour with each of the finalists sharing the fundraising picture, the challenges and the opportunities for the future of EFI.
“We were very candid with those finalists about what’s working and what’s not working, because we didn’t want to hire somebody who didn’t know what they were getting into,” he says.
Building the Foundation of Collaboration
When asked about his legacy, O’Driscoll says he sees EFI at its best when it facilitates multistakeholder spaces, which created the certification program and ECIP.
“What I’m most proud of is the effort, and this is not just from me, the commitment we have made to facilitating collaboration in multistakeholder spaces in our three core programs,” he says. “I didn’t design our certification program. I didn’t design our ethical charter program. I didn’t design our credentialing work. All of the substance of what’s in those programs came out of my colleagues, my team, as well as the stakeholders they met with, not out of my head. I’m really proud of that. I don’t think any one of those programs was about me. My job as the executive director was to make it possible for talented people to develop effective programs. That’s what I’m proud of.”
