Capstone Business and Operations for a Circular Bio-Economy

Renzo Akkerman

Associate Professor

Wageningen University & Research

Renzo Akkerman is Associate Professor in Operations Research and Logistics at Wageningen University. Earlier, he was Professor in Operations Management and Technology at the Technical University of Munich and Associate Professor in Operations Management at the Technical University of Denmark.

He graduated from the University of Groningen with a PhD in Operations Management and an MSc in Econometrics and Operations Research.

His (often interdisciplinary) research focuses on food supply chain management. Specific topics range from efficient resource (e.g. water) utilization in food processing to the design and planning of food supply chains considering food-specific characteristics (e.g. quality, safety, and sustainability).

Jos Bijman

Associate Professor

Wageningen University & Research

Jos Bijman is an expert on the organisation of agrifood value chains, with special attention to cooperatives and producer organisations (POs). His research focusses on organisational issues (such as internal governance; member commitment; board-management relationship), as well as the sustainability, resilience and inclusiveness of cooperatives and POs. Het is also an expert on contract farming arrangements and how these contribute to improving quality and sustainability.

Jos Bijman is project manager of the EU H2020 project CO-FRESH "Co-creating sustainable and competitive fruits and vegetables value chains in Europe" (2020-2024).

Jos Bijman is project manager of the LIQUID research and capacity development project on quality improvement and inclusiveness in dairy value chains in Souteast Asia and East Africa. See the LIQUID website for more information on this project.

Jos Bijman is editor of a 2016 book on cooperatives and producer organisations in developing and emerging countries: Cooperatives, Economic Democratization and Rural Development. The key message of this book was that cooperatives in developing countries are transforming from public-service oriented cooperatives, providing goods and services to the whole community, into member-service oriented organisations, providing goods and services mainly to their members. Particularly cooperatives that want to strengthen their marketing activities find themselves in this transformation process.

Emiel Wubben

Associate Professor in Strategic Management

Wageningen University & Research

Dr Emiel F.M. Wubben is Associate Professor Strategic Management at Wageningen University, and Research Fellow of WASS. He is Doctor in Economics (Tinbergen Institute, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 1993). Till 2001, he was Assistant Professor Strategy and Business Environment at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam.

In education Wubben is core teacher and responsible coordinator of (core course) Advanced Management and Marketing, the MSc-thesis prep course Biobased Business/Transition, for over 15y. More recently he realized the course Biobased Business. is Since With the Since, and partakes in other (internal and external) courses. Co-organisor of various conferences, as WICaNeM, and partner, e.g., in ARBOR (EU-Interreg SI 2010-2015). He co-supervises both regular and external PhD candidates. In recent years, Gohar Nuhoff-Isakhanyan (2016) and Hanieh Kodaih, (2015) completed their PhD-trajectory under his supervision.

Regarding management, Wubben was member of the PhD Admission Committee of Mansholt Graduate School, member of admission committees of 5 MSc-programs, member of the Advisory Board for the Exploring Corporate Strategy textbook (Prentice Hall), research and educational program coordinator, member chairgroup executive committee, action leader in research projects, and sat on the program-committee of InnoFasEnergy.

Winner of the 'J.Dorfman Dissertation Award 1994' and several educational recognitions himself, Wubben was supervisor of the 2011-winner of NOBEM PhD-thesis of the year Award, for the joint Dutch business schools. Wubben has (joint) publications in a variety of journals, such as Journal of Cleaner Production, Sustainability, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Energy Policy, British Food Journal, Journal on Chain and Network Science, Journal of Strategy and Management, China Insights Today, Postharvest Review, Supply Chain Management, and International Journal on Food System Dynamics, next to book (contribution)s for Edward Elgar, Routledge, Springer, MacMillan, and Wageningen Academic, and publications in popular press and as consultancy reports. External expert for strategic proposals of the Research Council of Norway (RCN). Prime or co-organisor of WICaNeM 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010. Speaker and lecturer in various executive settings.