Bio Details

Ivonne M.C.M. Rietjens has served as our independent director since August 2023. Dr. Rietjens is also a member of our audit committee and nominating and corporate governance committee. Dr. Rietjens has more than 25 years of experience in food safety. She is Emeritus Professor at Wageningen University, where she previously served as a full professor from 2001 until her retirement in December 2025. She has been an elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) since 2020 and served as the chairperson of the KNAW Scientific Council for Natural Sciences and Engineering from 2020 to 2023. For over 20 years, she has been a member and chairperson of the Expert Panel of the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association (FEMA) of the United States, advising on GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) notifications for new food flavors, and has been an elected member of the French Academy of Agriculture since 2018. She has been a board member of Skal Biocontrole, an independent organization that supervises and certifies the organic food chain in the Netherlands, and a member of the Fonterra Global Food Safety Science Advisory Panel Previously, she served as the chairperson of the Dutch Society for Toxicology from 1999 to 2005, as a member of the Academic Board at Wageningen University from 2012 to 2017, and as a member of the Supervisory Board of Royal Wessanen BV from 2012 to 2019. She was also an active member of several committees on food and occupational safety, including panels and working groups of the European Food Safety Authority from 2003 to 2014 and the Dutch Health Council. From 2013 to 2021, she was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Institute of Public Health & Hygiene (RIVM). Dr. Rietjens received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in molecular life sciences from Wageningen University and her Ph.D. degree in toxicology from Wageningen University. In 2024, she received the EUROTOX Merit Award.