Our Team
Our multi-talented team brings together different backgrounds and expertise.
Dr. Michael Boot
Co-CEO and Founder
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Drs. Tim van Helsland RA FD
Co-CEO and CFO
Tim is an Entrepreneur pur sang and brings over 28 years of finance and control, corporate finance, funding, strategic planning, M&A, interim senior management and operational experience in a national and international setting.
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He has extensive experience on the C-level but also a passional drive in helping companies to accelerate and to bring them to a higher professional, growth and profitability level. For this, he also won a few awards during the last 15 years of which the prestigious FD Gazelle Award is one of them.
He has covered senior management roles in different international settings and industries in the areas of (corporate) Finance & Control, General management, Operations, HR, Business development, Sales & and Marketing. He can read the world behind the numbers and is very good at understanding the cultural differences in International settings. Tim believes in possibilities and chances. With his tactical and political way of working he gets the job done even in the most difficult situations. With his leadership abilities together with his hands-on energetic mentality, he creates an atmosphere in which people want to grow and get the best out of them.
Next to CEO roles Tim has performed multiple hands-on due diligences in many industries. He is a registered chartered accountant (RA) with a Master in Forensic Accountancy and International Business. Tim studied at the University in Maastricht and the ERASMUS in Rotterdam. Motivated by transparency and trust in combination with a six sense for business Tim has set up multiple businesses all over the world over the last few years. The experience learned during the above processes Tim will bring to the Vertoro table as Co-CEO and CFO of the company.
He is looking forward to create a better sustainable world together with the Vertoro Team and his drive is to bring Vertoro to the next level. A sustainable oil major who can have a real impact!
Dr. Panos Kouris
Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer
Panos holds a MSc. and PhD in Chemical Engineering (specialty in lignocellulosic biomass conversion) from Eindhoven University of Technology. In 2017, he co-founded Vertoro, a spin-off company with the mission to valorise the IP generated during his PhD research.
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Within Vertoro, he is responsible for all technological developments and to successfully scale-up the production of Crude Lignin Oil, a platform product that has the potential to decrease the carbon footprint of the chemical industry and energy sector.
Panos has been selected as 2018 Young European Talent in the category ‘Science’, from the Nederlands. In 2021, he won the Marc Cornelissen Brightlands Award, which is an incentive prize for encouraging talented pioneers to persevere, show courage and leadership on the road to achieving their dream for a more sustainable society.
Mr. David Samad
Chief Commercial Officer
David, who graduated in Finance from the University of Colorado Boulder and holds an MBA from INSEAD, is a solutions-oriented business developer and investment professional.
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Mr. Derk Smid
Head of Business Development
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Prof. Emiel Hensen
Scientific Advisor
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Wendy. hyett
Team Leader Laboratries
Wendy studied (Bachelor’s degree) organic chemistry in Rotterdam before starting her career at DSM Innovative Synthesis (part of the Life Sciences division) working on new, sustainable processes to produce antibiotics.
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In 2007 she joined DSM’s Material Science Center where she worked on a wide range of projects for the different business units in DSM’s Materials division, including DSM Resins & Functional Materials and DSM Advanced Solar, and as a result built up a lot of knowledge and expertise in polymer chemistry and the analysis and characterization of polymers.
Norwin Zuidema
Project Manager
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Marjolein Van Den Boom
R&D technician
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Roger Geurts
Process development engineer