Leadership

Our leadership is one of highly motivated people with a unique drive to excite our customers with our sustainable ingredients.

Management team

Chief Executive Officer and founder
Kees Aarts

Kees is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and founder of Protix. Kees is a frequent speaker at international forums, and he is widely recognized as a visionary and innovator in the food and feed industry thanks to his work in reimagining global food supply chains. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Future Council on Food Security and Agriculture, serves on the board of The Shadow View Foundation and is a member of the Druid Collective. Prior to founding Protix, Kees started his career as an advisor at McKinsey on R&D innovation and business development. Kees holds a MSc title in Aerospace Engineering.

HR Director
Loes van Rijsoort

Loes is the HR Director of Protix. Loes held several senior consultant and management positions in the field of employee benefits in (big four) consultancy firms. After this, she became HR Change Manager at PostNL, HR Director at Bilfinger Benelux and at Landal Greenparks. With over 30 years of experience in several international companies and industries, Loes covers all aspects of HR, builds HR Teams with great business acumen, can give lead to organisational transitions and leadership development. Loes has degrees in Business Econometrics from Erasmus University Rotterdam and Applied Ethics from University of Utrecht. Furthermore she is a member of the Supervisory Board of Vebego.

Chief Operational Officer
Bas Jürgens

Bas is Chief Operational Officer (CCO) of Protix. Bas worked prior to Protix at DSM in several operational positions and acted as internal operational excellence consultant on projects worldwide. Bas has a Msc degree in Sustainable Process & Energy Technology and holds a green belt in martial arts.

Director Asset Development
Stijn Harms

Stijn is Director Asset Development at Protix. Stijn has extensive international experience in the execution of large capital projects within the energy industry. He held various roles in engineering, project & portfolio management and project development. Stijn has a MSc degree in Mechanical Engineering from Delft University of Technology and an MBA from University of Cape Town.

Chief Financial Officer
Lynn De Proft

Lynn De Proft is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Protix. Lynn brings almost 20 years of international experience in executive roles at listed and global companies to the Protix mix. Her career spans diverse markets, industries, and countries, where she has consistently demonstrated her commitment to driving sustainability whilst delivering strong financial results. Before joining Protix, Lynn was Chief Procurement Officer for Solvay as well as President of Solvay Energy Services. Prior to Solvay, Lynn spent 10 years in executive roles in strategy, operations, M&A, and procurement at Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABInBev), most recently as Vice President Global Procurement and Sustainability. Lynn holds a master’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Delft University of Technology, and an MBA from the Vlerick Business School.

Chief Commercial Officer
Piotr Postepski

As CCO of Protix, Piotr will help drive international expansion and, taking a measured approach to growth, will steer Protix towards profitable expansion in the next stage of our journey. He will be responsible for the overall commercial strategy, leading the sales team, marketing and business development activities as well as product development.

Supervisory board

Co-founder and ex-CEO of Galapagos
Onno van de Stolpe (Chairman)

Onno van de Stolpe co-founded Galapagos in 1999 and has been CEO and Board member until May 2022. Before Galapagos, Onno established the European operations for Molecular Probes Inc. He started his professional career in 1987 as Manager Business Development at MOGEN, an agricultural biotech company. Onno received his Master’s degree in Virology, with honours, from the Agricultural University in Wageningen, the Netherlands

Founder at Bauhinia Independent Financial Advisory
Jeroen Scheelbeek

Upon nomination by shareholder Rabobank, Jeroen joined Protix’ supervisory board in 2020. As a former banker, specialised in structured finance solutions, he assists the company with his financial insights in areas like funding, capital markets, accounting, project finance. During the last 30 years of his career he has gained a wealth of experience in supporting companies in the global food & agri space, “from farm to fork". Besides his role in the Protix board, he is a board member of a number of other companies, he advises large family offices on their investment portfolios and is regularly retained by the Dutch government in case of specific financial advisory assignments. Jeroen is excited by the contribution Protix can make to a more sustainable food supply chain.

Board member portfolio companies
Theo Janssen

Theo is board member portfolio companies for Aqua-Spark. Theo has been adviser merger & acquisition and informal investor since 2007. Previously, he worked as chief financial officer for Schuitema, Getronics and SNS Bank and has held international financial positions for Procter &Gamble. Currently, he is also a member of the supervisory board of Monuta N.V. Theo holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in business economics and Mathematics.

Independent Advisor Food & Agri
Frank van Lierde

Frank is a bio- engineer from KULeuven. He worked 32 years with Cargill in various management positions across the globe. From 2015 till his retirement in 2021, Frank was a member of Cargill’s Executive Team, responsible for the global Food Ingredients and Bio-Industrial Businesses.

Sr. Vice President, Tyson Foods, Inc. & GM, Tyson Ingredient Solutions
Joshua McLelland

Joshua McClelland is an officer and member of the Senior Leadership Team at Tyson Foods, one of the world’s largest food companies and a recognized leader in protein. Joshua has held various leadership roles across multiple business functions throughout his 15 years with the company. As the SVP and General Manager of Tyson Ingredient Solutions, he is responsible for all aspects of the business including strategy, sales, operations, food quality and safety, supply chain, and procurement. With over 50 production facilities, Tyson Foods is the second largest processor of animal by-products in the United States converting millions of tons of raw materials per year into sustainable and value-added ingredients that are sold and distributed to producers of feed, food, nutraceuticals, biofuels, and fertilizer. Joshua earned his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in professional accounting, minoring in business management, at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, Florida.

Special advisory board

(interim) Board member
Tarique Arsiwalla

As a co-founder of Protix, Tarique has been instrumental in laying the basis for the commercial platform and deregulation strategy on the EU level. He initiated the IPIFF and has sat on the board for several years. His commitment to developing new solutions and innovate with a can-do mentality and focus on execution has been vital in the progress Protix made in the first 10 years. Currently Tarique serves a.o. on the shareholder committee of Triodos Bank and in the board of Vermaat Catering. He is an active investor and advisor to Protix.

Strategic advisor and non-executive board member
Bert Pauli

Creating an industry is no easy task. It demands innovation on all aspects. From biology to technology to regulation. At nascency, Protix had to fight the regulatory front as well. There were 5 legal barriers for the category to even exist. That didn’t hold us back. Together with Bert Pauli we developed views and pathways to deregulate the industry. From writing a paper on the needed roadmaps and market deregulations to being present at the right places in Brussels and the Hague. After major successes in the period 2013-2019 he has continued his role as special advisor to Protix. He supports our development mainly in the areas of municipal interests, National and European regulatory and subsidy agendas and general stakeholder management.