Nutreco’s R&D director, Leo den Hartog, retires

After a career with the company spanning over 20 years, Nutreco’s research & development director, Leo den Hartog, has stepped down from his role, retiring from the company.

In his time with Nutreco, he held a variety of different positions, including quality affairs director and director of corporate sustainability.

Working in close contact with customers, he initiated and set up many departments that are central to the company today, including quality affairs, intellectual property, global validation, the food research centres in Spain and the Netherlands and the Ingredient Research Center, amongst others, noted the animal nutrition and fish feed group.

He was also the first in the company to collaborate with universities, it said, with Nutreco now working together with 100 universities on all continents.

For the past 20 years, den Hartog has also worked as a part-time professor in animal nutrition in a circular economy at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He will retire from this role later this year.

He will remain a supervisory board member of Nutreco Nederland and a member of the judging panel for the Nutreco Young Researcher’s Prize, the second of which will be held this year.