As of January 1, Frank Groenen will strengthen the ChemistryNL team. He will coordinate and drive international activities. A role that is tailor-made for him: he has extensive experience in international collaboration within chemical industry and beyond.
‘The Dutch chemistry has a lot to offer foreign parties: consider our geographical location, our strong chemical clusters and the extremely high level of knowledge. Our unique infrastructure offers a wonderful breeding ground for start-ups. There are interesting developments emerging everywhere,” says Groenen: “At the same time, we face enormous challenges and opportunities in the Netherlands and worldwide: the existing chemistry must become more sustainable and completely new fields of work are emerging: consider our role in the energy transition and in the development of new materials. Only if we join forces internationally can we meet the challenges and seize the opportunities. I will contribute to this with great enthusiasm.’
Groenen has a lot of experience with innovation in chemistry. Trained as a chemical technologist, he worked at DSM on innovations in the field of fine chemistry and materials. In addition, as director of Sachem Europe, he has worked on forging international alliances and, as a board member of the VNCI, he has been involved in the integration of SMEs in the sector.
Frank Groenen takes over the tasks of Reinier Grimbergen and Marius Weehuizen: ‘They have built up a solid foundation of internationalization matters. I would like to build on this to further strengthen international cooperation within chemistry.’
