Press releases

Trudy Schoolenberg

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 Spirax Sarco Engineering Plc, and Accsys Technologies Plc. Additionally, she is a Non-Eexecutive Director (Bestuurslid) of The Netherlands Petroleum Stockpiling Agency (COVA). 

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

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).

Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders 2020

Michelle Jou

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. In 2003, Michelle Jou joined Covestro (formerly Bayer MaterialScience) in the company’s central departments in Shanghai. She later took on the role of VP of the Polycarbonates Business Unit in China and Hong Kong. In 2012 Mrs. Jou was named Senior VP of Commercial Operations in the Asia region. In 2016, she became President of Covestro’s global Polycarbonates Segment, headquartered in 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 Welten

Chief Financial Officer

Mr Welten will bring 30 years in finance to Avantium and has extensive experience in the chemical and life-sciences industries. He most recently 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, Mr Welten 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

Edwin Moses (chairman) 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 Chairman.

Edwin Moses is Chairman of the Supervisory Board and member of the Audit Committee.