Supervisory Board

Jopie Nooren (1961) is the Chair for the Executive Board at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. She has an extensive career in health care and in politics. She is driven and socially engaged, strives for an inclusive society for the physically and mentally impaired. Her career shows a number of health care organizations. For example, the Dutch association for the disabled (VGN), Zorgverzekeraars Nederland (ZN; the umbrella organization of ten health insurers in the Netherlands), Erasmus University, Rotterdam. She also chaired and co-shared several advisory boards. For example, Wilhelmina Ziekenhuis, Assen, NVZD, Special Olympics and Vilans.

From 2008 until 2012 Jopie was CEO of Lunet zorg, a health care organization for the mentally impaired. Currently she is CEO of Bartiméus (2013), an expert organization for people with visual impairment. She strives for a strong coalition with other parties active in the same sector, to join forces to contribute to a better life for those who are impaired. Bartiméus aims for living 100% for people with visual impairment, enabling them to live the life they wish. Bartiméus also plays an active role in promoting social inclusion and equal opportunities for the visually impaired.

Between 2015-2021 she has been senator in the Dutch senate for the PvdA (Dutch labor party). In the senate was secretary and treasurer and spokesperson for matters of health care, wellbeing and sports, secondary and higher education, integration, immigration and asylum. Jopie is a gifted ceramist and a long-distance runner in her spare time.

• HVA - Jopie Nooren

Koenraad Debackere is a professor of Technology and Innovation Management & Policy at KU Leuven since 1995. He has degrees in engineering and business. He was a visiting doctoral student and Fulbright post-doctoral fellow at MIT Sloan School and obtained best paper awards from the TIM Division of the American Academy of Management, the Decision Sciences Institute and the International Association for the Management of Technology. In 2006 he was awarded the Prize for Scientific Excellence of the Belgian Entreprise Foundation (VBO). In 2007 he received an honorary professorship from the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex.

He is the managing director of KU Leuven Research & Development and chairman of the KU Leuven seed fund, Gemma Frisius. He is co-founder and chairman of Leuven.Inc, the innovation network of Leuven high-tech entrepreneurs. Since 2005, he is the general manager of KU Leuven. In 2015, he was appointed chairman of EIT Health e.V. --- a KIC of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.

• KU LEUVEN - Koenraad Debackere

Wim van der Meeren (1955) is the former CEO of CZ (2009-2019), one of the mayor healthcare insurers of the Netherlands (3.6 million insured). Wim earned his Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Nijmegen (1980). He started his career as a policy coordinator and head of Public Health in the Gelderland province. In 1986, he accepted the position of Executive Director of the Den Ooiman nursing home in Doetinchem.

In 1992 he moved on to the Drechtsteden hospital in Dordrecht as CEO and in 1998 he became CEO of the St. Elisabeth Hospital in Tilburg. Wim is convinced that focus on quality in healthcare reduces costs, whereas a focus on costs reduces quality. Wim currently serves as member of the Supervisory Board of the AVANS University for Applied Sciences, Chairman of the Provincial Council of Health in Noord Brabant, Chairman of the “Begeleidingscommissie evaluatie Juiste Zorg op de Juiste Plek” from the Ministry of Health and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the “Stedelijk Museum Breda”.

• NVTZ - Wim van der Meeren

Luc Keltjens (1986) is manager Mergers and Acquisitions at Marktlink in Amsterdam and is (inter)nationally active in assisting entrepreneurs with mergers, acquisitions, financing, restructuring and succession issues. In his period Marktlink has tripled in size and currently has 90 employees within 6 offices in the Benelux, successfully completing more than 80 transactions annually. Luc graduated at Maastricht University and worked as financial performance analyst and consultant at ABN AMRO and a consultancy boutique in Amsterdam.

He is the son of entrepreneurial parents, who were required to sell their family businesses due to health reasons (i.e. kidney failure and hearth disease). Luc has been faced with multiple kidney transplantation procedures. In his family and has therefore gained experience from patient perspective.

• MARKTLINK - Luc Keltjens

Rob van Leen was Chief Innovation Officer at Royal DSM N.V. until August 2019. In this role he managed the DSM Innovation Center, a unit which was established in 2006 to accelerate and support innovation throughout DSM and to create new businesses outside the scope of DSM’s current Business Groups.

Rob van Leen has worked for DSM since 1987. He held various positions in the company including: Business Group Director of DSM Food Specialties, Business Unit Director of DSM Dairy Ingredients and Technology Director of R&D at DSM Food Specialties. Dr. Van Leen has a PhD in Mathematics and Physics from Nijmegen University and an MSc in Biologics from Utrecht University. He also holds an MBA degree from Nyenrode University.

• LinkedIn - Rob van Leen