Senior manager partnership development, Unilever Food and Health Research Institute, Vlaardingen, The Netherlands
I studied Human Nutrition at the Wageningen University. During my studies I focussed increasingly on malnutrition in developing countries and I did my PhD fieldwork in Benin. After finishing my PhD I went to France. I had met a particularly nice Frenchman in Benin, so I went back with him and found a job in Paris, working on the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study for almost 5 years where I was responsible for the database of dietary intake data of 70,000 French women. After that I worked for 6 years as a consultant at the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, training, planning and implementing nutrition programmes in developing countries. I gained a lot of experience in the health sector working for several of the international aid agencies. I would go for several weeks to a developing country, work with health care professionals, analyse the nutrition situation and help them plan the right interventions.
Ever since I came to Unilever in 2004, I've worked on partnerships with global health organisations to improve global health and nutrition. Currently I'm the global project leader for Unilever's partnership with the UN World Food Programme "Together for Child Vitality". The overall objective of this partnership is to improve the nutrition and health situation of school-aged children through strengthening WFP's school feeding programme. Unilever not only donates money, it also shares its nutrition and hygiene expertise and supports health education campaigns. The partnership addresses the needs of poor schoolchildren in Ghana, Kenya, Indonesia and Colombia, and at the same time improves the credentials of our Blue Band and Rama margarine brands. It also raises awareness in developed countries of hunger and malnutrition as issues – a key goal for WFP.
In my career, I've gone from research, to an advisory role, to project leadership. The job I do now suits my interests perfectly. I love it. It's great because I'm working in a food research environment, linked to the business providing value to our consumer brands, and linked to the social objective of reducing nutritional problems. My dream is to increase the role Unilever plays in reducing health and nutrition problems globally. The private sector can help public health organisations tremendously by using their research, product development and marketing capabilities. For me, partnerships are not about charity, but rather how to combine our business objectives with our social objectives.
