Joao Durr

​João Dürr was born in a small town of German immigrants in Southern Brazil, where most of the wealth comes from agriculture. The family moved to the state capital when João was 7 and there he grew up counting the days for the Summer vacations when he would spend almost two months at the grandparents farm. His father had a successful career as president and CEO of the largest dairy coop in Southern Brazil, a fact that definitely incited João’s interest for the dairy sector. With a BSc in agriculture from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, in 1992 João married his sweetheart, Thaís, and they decided to start their life together in Montreal, where João had been accepted as grad student at the Animal Science department of McGill University. In 1997 João obtained his PhD in Animal Breeding and Genetics and returned to Brazil to teach in the Vet school at the University at Passo Fundo, in his home state. There he also served as the university milk analysis lab manager, running both milk recording and milk quality programs. João served as the Brazilian Milk Quality Council president and actively participated as a consultant to develop new federal legislation on milk quality. From 2008 to 2014, João was the executive director of the Interbull Centre, in Sweden, and then was hired to establish the services currently provided by the CDCB as its first CEO. Recently, João has been elected vice-president of ICAR.