Published on Oct. 27, 2020
Welcome Joop Kersten as new Managing Director Business Unit Swine
On September 14th Joop joined Hendrix Genetics as the new Managing Director of Business Unit Swine (Hypor). He is looking forward to contributing to the development of the company towards vision 2025 building lasting relationships with customers and the entire team.
Joop was raised in a rural area of the Netherlands, familiar with farming even though he was never raised on a farm. He started getting involved with agriculture businesses joining Nutreco in 1997 and he fell in love with the industry from there.
With an extensive history of agriculture experience working with many industry leading companies, Joop began working for KPMG for 10 years serving an international portfolio of clients before joining Nutreco Holding N.V. as Business Unit Controller in 1997. After 8 years with Nutreco and 3 with Dumeco he began working at Hendrix Genetics for 2 years as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). From there he ventured into a seafood business before later joining CRV, a Dutch Co-Op in genetics and cattle improvements. For the past 11 years Joop has been serving as a Member of the Executive Board and CFO of CRV.
Joop has valuable expertise gained from previous positions and remains active in the agriculture industry with 20+ years of experience. Having worked previously with Hendrix Genetics as CFO in the early days of 2007, at a time where Hendrix Genetics acquired Eurobrid, breeding division of Nutreco, Joop says he is looking forward to seeing the growth expansion made within the company since then.
When asked what the most prevalent issue the swine industry faces today, Joop replied “Today the most pressing issue we face is feeding a growing world population and doing this in the most sustainable way. By suppling high quality animal protein that is efficiently produced, Hendrix Genetics is able to help feed this growing population while continuously focusing on sustainably.”
Hendrix Genetics focuses on advanced innovation and new techniques to help make an impact on a global scale. This provides a sustainable solution for the swine industry which Joop also attributes as being one of many rewarding aspects of working with the company. “Being part of an organization that is committed to sustainable breeding is very motivational and impactful.”
Joop brings a valuable network of industry connections and has expertise in a variety of species from swine, cattle, poultry, aquaculture, with overall knowledge of the entire value chain, from breeding to feed and processing. He believes that in the business of breeding, trust is key and delivering what you promise is essential to building lasting customer relationships. With many years of experience in the industry Joop has also gained a variety of other skills like familiarity of mergers, acquisitions, strategy development, analytical and financial experience.
With great focus on executing vision 2025 for the swine division, Joop aims to guide the team to reach their set targets and will begin his role with Hendrix Genetics by speaking with the team, researching and analyzing current plans to determine what he can bring to the table. Joop looks forward to meeting customers and developing strong meaningful relationships.
We will serve our clients as an entire team, bringing many levels of expertise. Contributing experience, networking of multi species breeding businesses and strong knowledge of management and software solutions as part of a genetics solution for customers.
Focusing aim to strengthen the industry by working closely with customers to discuss challenges facing the industry and explore opportunities together.
