23 Dec 2019
AMSTERDAM, 23 December 2019, 07:00 CET – Avantium, a leading technology company in renewable chemistry, announced today the appointment of Bart Welten as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Mr. Welten will join Avantium in January 2020. The Supervisory Board proposes to appoint Mr. Welten as a statutory member of the Management Board of Avantium at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM) of 14 May 2020.
More detailed information about the annual general meeting of shareholders (15 May 2024) can be found here:
More detailed information about the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders (24 January 2024) can be found here:
More detailed information about the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders (10 May 2022) can be found here:
Draft Minutes Annual General Meeting 2023 >
Boudewijn van Schaïk serves as Avantium’s CFO as of 1 January 2023. Before joining Avantium, Boudewijn served as Corporate Finance Director and other senior roles in Treasury, Strategy and M&A at SBM Offshore (2013-2022). Prior to the foregoing roles, he held various senior finance positions at NIBC Bank, ABN AMRO Bank, Main Corporate Finance and Alexander Forbes Financial Services (South Africa). Boudewijn holds a Business Science degree (Accounting and Corporate Finance) from the University of Cape Town (South Africa).
More detailed information about the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders (30 November 2022) can be found here:
Minutes EGM 30 November 2022 >
Convocation notice EGM 30 November 2022 >
Convocatie BAVA 30 november 2022 >
Agenda and explanatory notes EGM 30 November 2022 >
Agenda en toelichting BAVA 30 november 2022 >
Introduction Boudewijn van Schaïk >
Yap Chie works for Avantium since 2023. She is responsible for commercialising Avantium’s portfolio of revolutionary renewable chemistry solutions, including plant-based mono-ethylene glycol (plantMEG) and mono-propylene glycol (plantMPG). Yap Chie has significant commercial and global management experience and has a proven track record in initiating and setting up partnerships within the value chain in the biobased industry. Prior to joining Avantium, Yap Chie held several senior positions in sales, market development and global business management at International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), Cargill and DSM over a 25-year period.
More detailed information about the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders (25 January 2022) can be found here:
DRAFT Minutes EGM 25 January 2022 >
Presentation EGM 25 January 2022 >
Introduction video Nils Björkman >
Voting results 25 January 2022 >
Agenda and explanatory notes EGM Avantium N.V. >
Proposed Amendment Articles of Association >
Voorstel tot Aanpassing Statuten >
Virtual EGM Registration Manual >
Virtuele BAVA Registratiehandleiding >
Information Line for Retail Investors
Retail Investors with questions about the agenda and the meeting documents of the EGM can call the Avantium Information Line for Retail Investors (open from Monday to Friday during business hours) or send an email: +31 (0) 10 313 8909 / avantium@georgeson.com
More detailed information about the general meeting of shareholders (19 May 2021) can be found here:
Draft Minutes Annual General Meeting 2021 >
Questions Shareholders AGM 2021, date 19 May 2021 >
Business Update 2020 AGM 2021 >
Agenda and explanatory notes AGM Avantium N.V. 19 May 2021 >
Virtual AGM Registration Manual >
Virtuele AvA Registratiehandleiding >
Response Works Council Request for Advice Re-appointment T. van Aken and M. Kleinsman >
More detailed information about the general meeting of shareholders (14 June 2017) can be found here:
Presentation slides AGM 14 June 2017 >
Minutes Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Avantium N.V. >
Convocation notice, Attending the meeting and voting >
Agenda and explanatory notes AGM Avantium N.V. 14 June 2017 >
How to get to the Annual General Meeting 2017 >
The Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders (“EGM”) of Avantium was held on November 30th, 2017.
More detailed information about the EGM can be found here:
Minutes Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of Avantium N.V. >
Convocation notice, Attending the meeting and voting >
Agenda and explanatory notes EGM Avantium N.V. 30 November 2017 >
More detailed information about the general meeting of shareholders (16 May 2018) can be found here:
Business progress update 2017 >
Convocation notice, Attending the meeting and voting >
Agenda and explanatory notes AGM Avantium N.V. 16 May 2018 >
Voting results AGM 16 May 2018 >
More detailed information about the general meeting of shareholders (15 May 2019) can be found here:
190815 – Avantium N.V. – Minutes AGM 15 May 2019 (final) >
Business Progress Update 2018 >
Introduction to new Supervisory Board Member Rob van Leen >
Convocation notice, Attending the meeting and voting >
Update to Convocation notice, Attending the meeting and voting >
Agenda and explanatory notes AGM Avantium N.V. 15 May 2019>
Voting Results AGM 15 May 2019 >
More detailed information about the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders (20 December 2019) can be found here:
Minutes EGM 20 December 2019 >
Agenda and explanatory notes EGM Avantium N.V. 20 December 2019 >
More detailed information about the general meeting of shareholders (14 May 2020) can be found here:
Business update 2019 AGM 2020 >
Questions & answers shareholders AGM 2020 >
Additional information Annual General Meeting 2020 >
Aanvullende informatie Algemene Vergadering van Aandeelhouders 2020 >
CEO Uitnodiging voor de AVA 2020 >
Convocation notice, Attending the meeting and voting >
Agenda and explanatory notes AGM Avantium N.V. 14 May 2020 >
Remuneration policy for the Management Board and the Supervisory Board 2020 >
Tom van Aken is Avantium’s CEO (Chief Executive Officer) and member of the Management Board. Before his appointment as a CEO in 2005 he was Vice President of Business Development (2002-2004) and Vice President of Global Marketing and Sales (2004-2005).
Prior to joining Avantium, Tom was Business Development Director at DSM Fine Chemicals, Inc.
Dutch native, Tom earned an MSc in Chemistry from the University of Utrecht.
Tom’s main inspiration is the excellent team he works with and the opportunity to make an impact together.
Sustainable Development Goals
This target requires us to call for greater action on the need for a fossil-free chemical industry. We will be advocating for changes that support the transition to circular chemicals and materials. We want to lead by example, and we are demanding from ourselves to step up to address the climate crisis. The scale of the challenge demands that we more actively engage and work through partnerships and collaborations with a broad range of stakeholders.
Sustainable Development Goals
As part of our diversity agenda, we believe in gender equality and will strive to achieve this at Avantium. In 2019, 29% of Avantium’s Management Team, 25% of our Leadership Teams and 33% of our Supervisory Board were women. The chemical industry is currently underrepresented by women across all levels of organisations. Avantium compares favourably against the industry average but we know that there is still a lot to do across all levels of the company to achieve gender parity and equality.
Sustainable Development Goals
Our approach to inspire the next generation of scientists focuses on three actions:
Sustainable Development Goals
We aim to continuously improve our work environment and culture. We strive to maintain a flat organisation that empowers, recognises and celebrates the many cultures represented. We do this is by making sure we all live and breathe the Avantium values. These values act as our compass and ensure that we are a purpose driven organisation embracing sustainability, wellbeing, diversity and inclusion.
Perform a ‘Great Place to Work’ baseline assessment of workplace to be able to:
Sustainable Development Goals
We already have a strong safety culture and focus heavily on Health and Safety. We will now begin to embed safety into our systems. We will do this by rolling out ISO45001 across our operations as the gold standard for organisations who are serious about improving employee safety, reducing workplace risks and creating better and safer working conditions.
Sustainable Development Goals
We will do this by:
Sustainable Development Goals
In order to achieve zero carbon operations, we will focus on the following areas:
We will:
Sustainable Development Goals
In order to ensure the integrity of our feedstocks, we aim to only partner with suppliers that actively engage in sustainable practices. We will strive to adopt independently certified sustainable standards of feedstock, but when these are not available or appropriate, we will create our own sustainability standards in consultation with subject matter experts and leading NGOs.
Sustainable Development Goals
Avantium will tackle the circularity challenge with the following approach:
Sustainable Development Goals
Avantium’s technologies will deliver CO2 savings through:
Trudy Schoolenberg joined the Supervisory Board of the Company in September 2020.
Dr. Trudy Schoolenberg served in various senior management positions at Shell, Wärtsilä and Akzo-Nobel in Research, Operations and Strategy. Dr. Schoolenberg currently holds Senior Independent Director roles at Accsys Technologies Plc. She is also member of the Board of Directors of Spie SA. Additionally, she is member of the Board of Directors of Elementis Minerals PLC.
Dr. Schoolenberg has a Ph.D. in Technical Sciences at the Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) and an Msc in Industrial Engineering. She certified as a Non Execitive Director at ESAA, Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Cynthia Arnold joined the Supervisory Board of the Company in September 2020.
She served as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at The Valspar Corporation, a manufacturer of paint and coatings. She was also Chief Technology Officer at Sun Chemical Corporation, the world's largest producer of printing inks and pigments. Prior to this, she worked for nine years at General Electric Plastics, of which three years were for GE Plastics Europe in The Netherlands. She currently serves as a non-executive Director on the Boards of The Cabot Corporation, Milliken & Company and Citrine Informatics.
Dr. Cynthia Arnold holds a Ph.D. from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg (USA), an MBA from the University of California in Berkeley (USA) and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of California in Berkely (USA).
More detailed information about the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders (30 September 2020) can be found here:
Agenda and explanatory notes EGM Avantium N.V. 30 September 2020 >
Michelle Jou joined the Supervisory Board of the Company in 2020. She has over 20 years of professional experience in the chemical industry in Asia and Europe, where she has served in a variety of positions in sales, marketing and supply chain management. Since 2022, Michelle Jou serves as Chief Executive Officer at Castrol. Prior to this, she worked for Covestro (formerly Bayer MaterialScience) in various roles. In her last role at Covestro, she was President of Covestro’s global Polycarbonates Segment (Shanghai). Mrs. Michelle B.B. Jou (1969) holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in French from Fu-Jen University (Taiwan) and an MBA from the EMLYON Business School (France). She is fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, French and English.
Bart is CFO and member of the Management Board since 2020. Before joining Avantium, Bart served as the CFO of Centrient Pharmaceuticals (formerly the joint-venture of DSM and Sinochem) in Singapore. Before he left Centrient, he managed the sale of the company to Bain Capital. Prior to this, Bart held the position of CFO of DSM Resins and DSM Anti-Infectives. He holds a law degree from Leiden University (Netherlands) and an MBA from Boston College (USA).
Edwin Moses (Chair) joined the Supervisory Board of the Company in December 2019.
Edwin Moses is a serial entrepreneur and value creator in European life science companies. He has expertise in high value service provision to the pharmaceutical industry and in drug discovery and development. His primary focus is on high growth businesses and change management. Mr. Moses has 25 years of Board level experience in more than 10 companies, mostly as a Chair.
We have fun and the rest of the world is a little bit weird
We are determined team players
We do the right things right
We are pragmatic idealists
We make a lasting impact
Margret Kleinsman, Chief Financial Officer of Agrifirm, graduated from the Technical University Twente, the Netherlands, and completed a post doc at the VU University Amsterdam. She was the CFO of Holland Colours N.V. from 2014 until 2020. Before that she worked for Akzo Nobel, filling a variety of roles with increasing responsibilities in Chemicals, Fibers and Coatings at various locations, including two longer term assignments in the USA. In her last role at Akzo Nobel, as General Manager for Car Refinish Coatings for North and South America, she was based in Atlanta, Georgia, and was, among other things, responsible for the implementation of a new distribution model.