Meet the Team
Our team welcomes new perspectives from diverse backgrounds, skill sets, and collaborative problem solving. We are proud of the transparent and honest dialogues we share with colleagues, pushing each other professionally to reach higher standards of work.
Our Specialists
Petra Steenhoek
Petra, with Hortimare since 2012, can often be found onsite at client’s farms to dive for fertile new material or to assess test lines with the team. As our sales manager she is in close contact with breeding and production as well as farmers. Never a dull moment!
Manon Stijnman
Manon has completed tourism education and worked in the travel industry at travel agencies and tour operators. She now is a back of office employee at Hortimare and does all kinds of things within the company such as logistics matters, (project) administration and managing the stock. Her favourite part is booking the business trips!
Suzan Vellekoop
Suzan has a background in business and sustainability where she became passionate about seaweed’s potential. From then on, she never stopped talking about seaweed and continues this enthusiasm to initiate projects. You can contact her for new projects, marketing and questions on existing projects.
Josh Masel
Originally from Australia where he studied marine science, Josh has lived in Europe for the past few years where he has traveled around the world supporting seaweed companies with their operations, from both a technical and strategic perspective. He loves connecting with people and projects and enjoys the challenges that the seaweed industry offers.
Ed Langedijk
Ed has worked before as a breeder for 32 years in alliums, land plants. Since 2020 he joined Hortimare. He likes to share the knowledge about breeding, production and sales with his colleagues and with clients. If clients are interested in getting more yield, breeding is a tool to manage it. Already several breeding projects all around the world are established. Implementing them into production is now in progress. We can’t wait to show the world the results.
Gabriel Montecinos Arismendi
Gabriel is from Chile and has +12-year experience in the seaweed sector. His focus has been on its potential to contribute to scientific research, environmental sustainability, and versatile applications in various industries. His role at Hortimare revolves around the selection and production of superior local materials to sustain seaweed producers. His experience includes living in three countries and encompasses various projects from restoration to seaweed domestication.
Núria Bellido Martin
Coming from Girona, studied Marine Sciences at the University of Cadiz, specialised in Marine Ecology at University of Balearic Islands. Always related to seaweed projects and with the dream of having a seaweed farm, decided to move to The Netherlands to get into the industry. She provides support to clients and to production and breeding in-house.
Jessica Schiller
Jessica has a B.Sc. and M.Sc. with theses on kelp stress tolerance and cultivation. During her PhD (in progress) she focused on the ecophysiology of invasive kelp in Europe and cultivation China, with a research stay at IOCAS, Qingdao. Jessica built up our test line program, develops science-based cultivation advice for clients and works as research coordinator.
Marianne Verberne
Marianne has been a researcher (PhD) in plant physiology and biotechnology for many years, focusing on topics related to plant pathology and metabolic engineering. Since 2021, she has been exploring the world of seaweed cultivation at Hortimare. She loves to be challenged and enjoys using her creativity.
Ana Campos
Growing up on Portugal’s sunny coast, Ana developed a big passion for nature and environmental sciences. Over time she became particularly interested in the role Asparagopsis can play in the fight against climate change and how seaweed farming can positively impact local communities. She spent the past 5 years between Portugal, Vietnam, and now the Netherlands, researching this promising seaweed and helping farmers successfully scale up production.
Ligia Ayres
Ligia is a Brazilian phycologist who is passionate about her work. She has over 15 years of experience researching red macroalgae and has worked in France and the US. In addition to her work with the Asparagopsis research team, Ligia is leading the company’s vegetable garden initiative.
Phil Kerrison
With numerous published papers on seaweed, Phil brings fundamental knowledge on attachment, seeding tech and the cultivation of multiple species. He is currently working in Vietnam for two years to help crack Asparagopsis sea cultivation with the Greener Grazing project. Phil loves trying new food with friends, crunching data and more recently karaoke and calisthenics.
Gianluca Bizzaro
A motivated and enthusiastic scientist specialised in Palmaria Palmata cultivation, and new species domestication. Gianluca loves a good challenge and a bit of problem solving. The thing that he misses the most are his mountains in Italy where he spends most of his free time.
Asier Indart Ibargutxi
Originally from the Basque Country, Asier has a background in marine biology and been working with seaweed all over the world in the last years. The realization of the potential of seaweed in sustainable agriculture, food, and biotechnology, lead him to be part of the breeding team, developing breeding programs for farmers all over the world.
Mabel Borst
With a background in Biotechnology Mabel is researching the red seaweed Palmaria palmata. She is leading the Palmaria research and is responsible for maintaining the cultures and organising the laboratory. Mabel loves cooking and inovating recipes with seaweed as well as gardening, camping and figure skating.
Ismaël Salazar
Ismaël has been maintaining gametophytes since before it was cool. He has been with Hortimare since we started at the facility of the NIOZ, Texel. Next to taking care of baby kelps at work, he is a proud father of two (human) children.
Afonso Marques
Afonso is a marine biologist from Portugal, deeply passionate about life on our planet. A proud member of the production team, he diligently cares for and nurtures their gametophyte cultures, ensuring their good health and quality. A sure fact about him: if you’re in the lab with him, you’ll surely find him with a smile and a positive attitude.
Pieter Mulder
Pieter has a degree in Green Biotechnology and ever since joining Hortimare, fascinated by seaweed. His focus in the company is expanding our kelp seed bank, ensuring quantity & quality for the client, and assisting clients from a nursery perspective. In his free time, he collects records, his jewel is ‘Fleetwood Mac – Rumours’… favourite seaweed Macrocystis!
Jerome van Schie
Jerome has a background in green biotechnology, now being applied for seaweed cultivation. As general technician he supports the company from technical perspective, including 3D printing & leading the hatchery and water system. His work is fueled by coffee, a passion for cycling and building up a vinyl collection, featuring the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Brendon Davis
Brendon is from Cape Town, South Africa, and has a background in finfish aquaculture and RAS systems. As a hatchery technician, he is involved in the upkeep and development of the facilities’ water systems. He enjoys spending his weekends outdoors, whether if its trail running, fishing or having a ‘braai’ with good company.
Samuel Silvestre Nuernberg
Originally from Brazil, Samuel graduated in Fishery engineering with experience in aquaculture, water systems and seeding technique. He has skills in problem-solving and interacting with people of all levels, loves working with challenges hands-on. On free times he enjoys cooking, kitesurfing, surfing and discovering new places.
Sander Meijer
Sander is our meticulous bookkeeper, a history enthusiast with a talent for puns. “Make a difference, but not in accounting…”
Cathelijne Brokx
Cathelijne joined Hortimare in October 2024 and has a lot of experience working as an office assistant. She enjoys being the link between different departments and working with people from all over the world. One on the things she noticed straight away, is how passionate the team is about what they do and about making a difference. As a vegan who’s become more invested in sustainability and her footprint in the world, working at Hortimare aligns beautifully with her values. After her adventure/travels in New Zealand, she’s fallen in love with the country, its people and the men’s national rugby team.
Haik van Exel
Haik hopes, as managing director of Hortimare, to have positive impact with building the seaweed industry. He started working at Hortimare in May 2018 in the belief that the seaweed industry was ready to scale. And now after 6 years, the industry is almost ready to scale. With strong partnerships, a bit of luck and hard work the seaweed industry will mature in the next 5 years. In his free time Haik enjoys watersports, traveling and family and friends.
Brigit Reus
From a young age, Brigit’s hands were always in the soil, Nurturing plants with love. She studied Green-Biotechnology and that’s were here passion for plant breeding started. Explore new varieties in combination with the fascinating world of seaweed makes the work really exciting.
Madalena Mendes
Madalena, a dedicated biologist from Portugal, holds an MSc in Biodiversity and Plant Biotechnology. Driven by her passion for seaweed and its immense potential, she brings prior expertise in seaweed polysaccharides. She actively contributes to the seeding tech team, focusing on attachment, machine and binder development.
Sang Trần Thị Thu
Sang comes from Vietnam where she studied biology before pursuing a Msc. Aquaculture in Ghent, Belgium. She is into all perspectives of the seaweed world: life cycles, cultivation techniques, breeding, and even cooking with seaweed. She can combine all her interests within the Asparagopsis team at Hortimare as a researcher. You should try her Saccharina latissima lumpia and Vietnamese food!
Melissa Jonker
Melissa always had a passion for plants and algae, so to learn more about these subjects she went to study biotechnology in Amsterdam. For this study she does her internship at Hortimare with the Asparagopsis team. In her spare time, she loves to read, swim and take care of her plants and fish.
Rosanne Briggeman
Rosanne has always loved nature and oceans, which came together during her master’s biology at Wageningen. Here, her interest in seaweed started. Currently, as an intern at Hortimare, she works on contamination control. In her free time, Rosanne loves to take pictures (especially of her dog) and spend time with family and friends.
Thom Stijlaart
Thom is a Coastal and Marine management student from Leeuwarden who has joined the Asparagopsis team as an intern. He has interest in everything Aquaculture and has always been interested in marine biology. His search for an aquacultural internship led him to Hortimare where he gets to experience aquaculture first hand.
Nick Groentjes
As a Green Biotechnology student Nick developed a passion for everything that grows, including seaweed. At Hortimare, he is currently helping to improve and research seeding techniques. In his free time Nick loves listening to music, especially from the 80’s. You can also find him on the football pitch every Sunday.
Ziqi Zhu
Ziqi has a background in ecology and plant science, with additional experience in plant breeding. His passion for cultivating sustainably led him straight to Hortimare, where he mainly assists in the advancement of Ulva cultivation in the lab and in production. Nature isn’t just a passion for him but also daily inspiration. Apart from seaweeds, he is also a big fan of hiking, cooking, music, and dancing.
Thijs van Noort
As a mechanical engineering student Thijs found out pretty quickly the prototyping of complicated machinery was what he wanted to do. At Hortimare Thijs will work on designing and building prototypes for machines related to seeding. In his free time Thijs loves spending time with friends, listening to music and doing extra work in his brother’s restaurant.
Join us
Join us and become part of an enthusiastic team in a flourishing and growing company with the potential to grow into an international market leader in the seaweed breeding sector.