Sustainability experts for the agri-food sector

Blonk's growing team consists of agri-food and sustainability experts, software developers, and data and methodology specialists. We are all passionate about building a sustainable and healthy society.

Team Blonk will provide you with clear, tailored advice and smart software solutions based on sound, independent research. As such, you can put results into practice effectively.

We draw on the considerable body of knowledge and experience we have built up over the years and our extensive network of experts.

Meet our people

Management Team

Hans Blonk
Managing Director

Hans is the founder of Blonk (established in 1999). He is a biologist graduated from Leiden University and was one of the developers of the first LCA methodology in the Netherlands. Over the years he has made important contributions to the development of LCA and Carbon Footprinting methods for agri-food products.

Jasper Scholten
Business Unit Manager | Consultants

Jasper has over 12 years of experience in consultancy and research with regards to environmental and sustainability issues of food production systems. At Blonk he manages the consulting department.

Marcelo Tyszler
Manager Data Solutions

Marcelo has over 20 years of experience in consultancy, applied research, and data science in agro- and behavioral economics, environmental and economic sustainability, and international development. His specialty is to translate complex problems into feasible solutions and applications. Within Blonk he manages the Data Solutions team. 

Bart Durlinger
Manager Software Solutions

Within Blonk Sustainability Tools Bart manages the Software Development and the Data and Methodology team. He translates client wishes into user friendly software solutions and applications. 

Menno van Rest
HR Business Partner

Menno is our HR Business Partner. He has a background in People & Organization and Law and has 9 years of experience in the HR field.

Office Management

Roeli van Kesteren
Office manager

Roeli is our office manager, she is responsible for the daily operations at our office. You will meet Roeli when you call the office. Besides that, she arranges everything related to invoicing. 

Marjolein Jonges
Office manager

Marjolein is our office manager, she is responsible for the daily operations at our office. You will meet Marjolein when you call the office.

Data & Software Solutions

Data & Methodology Team

Mike van Paassen
Senior Data & methodology specialist

Mike has a background in Chemical Technology (BSc) and Industrial Ecology (MSc). At Blonk he is mainly involved in the development and maintenance of Feed and Food consumption databases. In addition he supports consultants in data generation and the IT team in implementing methodology into various projects and tools.

Jeroen van Rijn
Medior Data Scientist & Engineer

Jeroen has an academic background in physics and climate change and has previously worked in data science for Vitens and Block by Block. As part of the data team, he functions as a link between consultants and software developers and works on database development.

Appanna Machimanda
Medior Data Scientist

Appanna graduated Agricultural & food data management (MSc) at UniLaSalle. Furthermore he has gained technical expertise in analyzing satellite image data, sensor data, and other data sources to help us be more sustainable. Systems and design thinking enthusiast. 

Software Solutions team

Wolfert de Kraker
Senior software developer

Wolfert is a senior software developer and graduated in Computer Science at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. At Blonk he translates complex problems into practical technical solutions.

Hein van der Ploeg
Senior Software developer

Hein graduated at the University of Groningen in artificial intelligence in 2005 and works for Blonk as a senior software developer. He strengthens the Blonk Sustainability Tools team by implementing workable and reliable software solutions.

Riki Hissink
Senior software developer

Riki Hissink has a background in Environmental & Sustainability sciences (MSc) and software development. At Blonk she translates complex sustainability questions into user friendly tools.

Lotte Ramekers
Senior Software developer

Lotte is a software developer with a master's degree in artificial intelligence. At Blonk she loves to find reliable solutions to complex technical problems.

Cas de Mooij
Medior Product Owner

Cas is a junior software developer and graduated in Sustainable Energy Technologies at Delft University of Technology. 

Damian Smits
Medior Software developer

Damian has a background in Earth Sciences (Msc). At Blonk, he is part of the software development team. He is mainly involved in LCA related software, as well as translating data related questions to efficient tooling.

Dennis Buijsman
Medior Software developer

Dennis graduated Mathematics at the University of Amsterdam. He is part of our software development team. 

Anneke Kraamer
Software Developer

Anneke has a background in Chemical Engineering with a focus on sustainable development. At Blonk, she creates and maintains animal and feed modules for APS-footprint.

Breza Witmond
Software developer

Breza has a background in Molecular Life Sciences. At Blonk, she works as a software developer on the animal modules for APS-footprint.

Anne Fleur von Barnau Sythoff
Software Developer

Anne Fleur graduated in Bioinformatics at the University of Applied Sciences in Leiden. She wanted to focus more on computer science and that is why she started working at Blonk as a junior software developer. She works on the animal and feed modules for APS-footprint.

Linda Meijering
Software Developer

Linda is a junior software developer with a Masters degree in ‘Animal Sciences; Breeding and Genetics’

Lex Schilperoord
Software Developer

Lex graduated in Chemical Engineering (MSc) at the Delft University.

Matvey Morozov
Medior Software Developer

Matvey has a background in Applied Mathematics (Ph.D.) with a focus on Fluid Mechanics. At Blonk, Matvey helps to develop robust and testable software solutions.

Henk Vink
Software developer

Henk graduated in Neuroscience (MSc) from the VU Amsterdam. He subsequently pursued a PhD in Auditory Neuroscience in Utrecht. At Blonk, he works as a software developer in the Blonk Sustainability Tools team.

Data & Software Consultants

Nicolò Braconi
Senior Consultant

Nicolò started as an intern at Blonk and currently he is a senior consultant within Blonk Sustainability Tools. He studied Food Technology at Perugia University and Wageningen University, where he specialized in Sustainable Food Process Engineering. 

Michela van Kampen
Senior Consultant

Michela has over 25 years of experience in environmental sustainability topics having worked in industry, Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and consultancy. She works as senior consultant in the wider service portfolio of Blonk from development of (PEF compliant) databases to helping customers understanding and improving their environmental impact performance.

Nynke Draijer
Medior Consultant

Nynke graduated in sustainable food process engineering. At Blonk she applies her skills in systematic thinking, data visualization and interpretation together with our clients. Next to working at Blonk she is doing a PhD on sustainable protein foods and their processes.

Carolina Carrillo Diaz
Medior Consultant and Product Manager AFP & GFLI

Carolina has a background in process optimization and sustainable chemical product design. She has worked for the food industry in R&D and plant operations. Within Blonk, she is part of the consultant’s team, where she understands and models systems and provides sustainability insights to clients. She also supports the development of sustainability software solutions.

Alessandra Grasso
Medior Consultant - Sustainable Nutrition Specialist

Linking nutrition with agriculture and the broader food system has been a passion and focus of Alessandra's work. She did a PhD in sustainable nutrition at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Within Blonk Alessandra works on a variety of projects related to sustainable nutrition and diets.

José Corigliano
Consultant/LCA content specialist

I’m part of the LCA team with degree studies and master’s in agronomy, presicion farming, agro-hydrology and soil conservation. Worked at the National University of Rio Cuarto as a professor/researcher in soil use and management. 
Very passionate about sustainability and the improvement of agricultural production.

Consultancy 

Janjoris van Diepen
Team Manager

As a senior consultant, Janjoris is responsible for account and project management within Blonk. Janjoris is leading sustainability target setting projects and projects related to carbon footprinting and monitoring. He is primarily motivated by projects that connect the consultancy perspective with data and tool development and implementation at the customer.

Caroline te Pas
Team Manager

Caroline has a background in Soil Sciences and Environment and Development. Caroline is mainly involved in quantitative analyses using LCA Impact methodologies, sustainable nutrition assessment and the development of tailored environmental calculation tools.

Meike Hopman
Team Manager

Meike has a background in mathematics and computing science. She has over 6 years of experience as a sustainability consultant focusing on carbon footprinting. At Blonk she is part of the consultants team.

Marty Heller
Senior Consultant US and Canada

Marty represents Blonk in the US and Canada. He supports existing projects while building new opportunities for Blonk to advise the agri-food sector in North America. Marty received degrees in chemical engineering from Michigan State University (BSc) and the University of Colorado at Boulder (PhD). During his post-doctoral research at Center for Sustainable Systems (CSS) at University of Michigan he started to conduct various agri-food related LCAs. 

Nadine Mooren
Team Manager

Nadine has worked over 15 years in the Foods sector; from procurement and marketing & sales to sustainability. As a senior consultant Nadine is responsible for projects focused on chain (Scope 3) impacts.

Elisabeth Keijzer
Senior Consultant

Elisabeth has over 12 years of experience in sustainability research & consultancy. She works as a senior Life Cycle Assessment expert within the Blonk Consultants team.

Juliette Herin
Medior Consultant

With a background in environmental sciences, ecodesign, and waste management, Juliette has close to a decade of experience in the field of sustainability consultancy. Her main focus is using life cycle assessments to quantify, improve, and communicate on the environmental performance of products and processes.

Davide Lucherini
Medior Consultant

As a consultant, Davide mainly focuses on analyzing horticultural system. He is experienced in developing environmental footprinting tools and collaborated in the creation of LCA sector specific guidelines. He previously studied Environmental engineering and Sustainable development. Besides Blonk, he spends most of his time on music.

Melissa Smith
Medior Consultant

Melissa graduated from a joint Master’s Program in Sustainable Development from both Uppsala University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). Within Blonk she conducts life cycle assessments and develops excel based tools to calculate carbon footprint.

Björn Kok
Medior Consultant

Björn is part of the Consultants team. Besides that, he also doing a PhD at the University of Stirling, where he studies the environmental impacts of aquaculture, with a focus on novel feed ingredients. 

Iana Salim
Consultant

Iana has a master's degree in industrial ecology and a PhD in LCA of agricultural crops and bio-based products. Within Blonk, she works as a consultant on projects in the area of sustainable agriculture and animal systems. She is also involved in the development of standards related to field emissions from agriculture and land use change

Charlotte Westbroek
Consultant

Charlotte is part of our consultants’ team. She studied at Wageningen University and has background in Sustainable Food Process Engineering and Supply Chain Management.

Lana Liem
Consultant

Lana is in the final stage of her MSc in Industrial Ecology, which is an interdisciplinary study using a system’s approach to tackle environmental issues. At Blonk, she is part of the consultants team.

Kurt van der Blom
Consultant

Kurt studied Environmental Sciences and Sustainable Development at UU. For his MSc thesis, he used LCA to compare two micronutrient fertilizers.
He worked at Mobilis as a sustainability coordinator. Here, he continued to work on LCA’s. Now that he works at Blonk, he hopes to contribute to developing a more sustainable future via the data driven approach used here.

Eline Disselhorst
Consultant

Eline studied Plant Sciences and Organic Agriculture at Wageningen University, where she became passionate about sustainable agriculture. At Blonk, she is part of the consultants’ team.

Sreepriya Kochumadom
Consultant

Sreepriya has a background in Environmental engineering. She has a profound interest in environmental impact assessment and sustainability. At Blonk, she is part of the Consultants’ team

Nathalie Goemans
Consultant

Nathalie graduated her bachelor study in Environmental Science at UU and a second master in Organic Agriculture at the WUR. Throughout her master in Sustainable Development, she got triggered by System Thinking and more data-oriented methods. This led to her graduation project where she built a model in Python on a consumer-level food choice indicator that is easy to use and takes planetary boundaries into account.

Naomi Buijs
Consultant

Naomi is part of our consultancy team. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Global Sustainability Science and a master’s degree in Earth Sciences. She is passionate about sustainability, data analysis and bridging knowledge gaps.

Alexander Rudolf Vanier
Consultant

Alexander obtained his Msc. at UU in the field of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, he has a background in chemical regulation within the E.U, life cycle assessments and corporate carbon footprinting. He is passionate about sustainability, environmental data analysis and reducing environmental footprints across various industries. 

Gregorio Brussino
Consultant

Gregorio joined Blonk after this internship, in which he investigated how process simulation tools could help in solving data gaps in life cycle assessments.

Iñigo Irache Cabello
Consultant

With studies on Industrial Engineering and Industrial Ecology, I have gathered an understanding of the complexities surrounding the achievement of sustainable systems and how to tackle them. I have a particular interest in the potential of regenerative and restorative practices to reduce the environment impact of current agricultural systems.

Trainees

Anouk Spruit
Trainee

Anouk has a background in Industrial Design Engineering (BSc) and Industrial Ecology (MSc). She wrote her Master thesis about land-use change in LCA at Blonk and joined the Trainee team.  

Ids Biemans
Trainee

Ids has a background in Biology and Biobased Sciences, where he touched upon several different disciplines related to the agricultural sector, ranging from crop physiology to agricultural economics. Here at Blonk Ids specializes in LCA by combining his background disciplines and deepening specific knowledge.

Luce de Groot
Trainee

Luce has a background in Industrial Design Engineering and Industrial Ecology at Tu Delft and University of Leiden. Industrial Ecology takes an interdisciplinary and systemic approach to challenges in sustainability. Luce is excited to integrate this while striving for a more sustainable food system.  

Obbe Annega
Trainee

Obbe has a master's in Environmental Management and Sustainability Science from Aalborg University. At Blonk, he is pursuing his interest in LCA analysis as part of the traineeship team.

Samragi Chatim
Trainee

Samragi graduated from the Life Science and Technology program (MSc) at Delft University of Technology. During the academic journey, Samragi developed a background in industrial and environmental biotechnology. After graduating, Samragi worked for 2 years as a researcher & product developer in a greenhouse gas mitigation project for the dairy farming sector. 

Anike Dietzsch
Trainee

Anike has graduated with an MSc in Forest and Nature Conservation from Wageningen University and Research and BSc in Earth Systems from The University of Malta. Anike developed a liking for different types of ecosystems in which she is now pursuing further in LCAs for food systems.

Marketing, Communication & Sales 

Megan Jasson
Senior Business Development and Sales Consultant

Megan is a Senior Business Development and Sales Consultant at Blonk. She has a background in marketing strategy and Master's in sustainable development from Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

Jixin Liu
Sales and Customer Support Consultant

Jixin graduated from Wageningen University with a master’s degree in agroecology. She works as a sales and customer support consultant at Blonk.

Meike van de Wouw
Marketing & Communication Manager

At Blonk Meike is responsible for all marketing communication related activities, such as websites and newsletters. She has a background in marketing communication and graduated from Wageningen University and Research. 

Dorien Soons
Marketing Communication Specialist

At Blonk Dorien is responsible for all marketing communication related activities, such as websites and newsletters. She has a background in marketing and graduated from Tilburg University. 

Quality & Project Management

Luis Alejandro Basa Benavides
Medior Quality Management Consultant

Alejandro studied MSc. environmental sciences at Wageningen University, and has experience regarding integrated management systems (ISO & OHSAS standards). He is ensuring conformity to the requirements ISO 9001:15 and ISO 27001:17 within Blonk’s quality and information security management systems.

Rory Malone
Project Management Officer

After completing two masters - International Development Studies and Management - and gaining valuable experience in the world of consultancy, Rory joined Blonk. As a Project Management Officer, he will be focusing on project management and process improvement, playing a pivotal role in driving successful project outcomes and optimizing operational efficiency.

Blonk's freelancers

Elena Koukouna
Freelance consultant

Elena is a sustainability consultant with an educational background in industrial engineering and ecology. She has experience in consulting multinational and international companies on achieving business competitiveness while placing sustainability in the front-line. She is an expert in performing life cycle assessments. She is also very skilled in developing learning material and providing trainings to professionals.

Mariem Maaoui
Freelance consultant

Mariem has an engineering degree in horticulture and a plant protection and a PhD in LCA of agricultural crops. She joined Blonk as a freelance consultant working remotely from Tunisia. Within Blonk, she is involved in various projects from analyzing horticultural systems, animal systems and developing environmental tools and datasets.

Why work with Blonk? 

Integrity & reliability

Integrity is at the heart of our company. We don't support greenwashing and work with clients who encourage honest research and advice.

Expertise & experience

We are an international leader in environmental and sustainability research, specializing in the agri-food sector. We draw on 20+ years of experience in the field.

Extensive network

We call upon our extensive network of experts in the business and academic community for tailored advice.

Multi-disciplinary team

Our team of agri-food and sustainability professionals, LCA experts, software developers, and data and methodology specialists is passionate about building a sustainable and healthy society.

No-nonsense approach

We deliver clear and practical advice based on sound, independent research. We always get the job done and offer you the service value you deserve.

Courage & ambition

Our team has the courage and ambition to break new ground for tailored advice, aiming to create a sustainable, healthy planet for current and future generations together.

Want to know how we can help you give shape to sustainability?