Hans Huistra has taken over the baton from Gerard Backx as CEO of seed potato company HZPC with immediate effect. Huistra is a well-known name in the dairy world, but he also gained the necessary experience on the supervisory board at Cosun. Backx worked at the Frisian company for almost a quarter of a century and is now leaving.
Huistra can start working in his native village of Joure from today, 2 September. The 56-year-old Frisian has been active as a manager at various companies for over thirty years. In addition to Unilever and Hero, mainly at dairy companies such as FrieslandCampina and Fonterra. Huistra was on the supervisory board of the cooperative Cosun for seven years.
His international knowledge comes in handy at HZPC. He worked in Europe, Asia, America and Africa for his work. At the beginning of this year, HZPC announced that Huistra would be Backx's successor. At that time, he was still working as COO at cultured meat company Meatable.
Backx will stop at the end of this year
Earlier this year it was announced that Gerard Backx would stop as CEO and would stop in the course of this year. Now he is leaving his position with immediate effect, although he will remain involved in the background for the next two months. He worked for the cooperative for 23 years.