Dr. Frans Houwen (1958) was educated as a biologist at the former Catholic University of Nijmegen (now Radboud University). He graduated in Microbiology, Genetics and Biochemistry, providing him with a substantial amount of broad and versatile knowledge within natural science.
His scientific career was continued at the Agricultural University of Wageningen and enhanced with a PhD degree in the field of anaerobic Microbiology and Biochemistry.
Contiguous to taking his degree he gained international experience at the Agricultural University of Uppsala (Sweden) and at the University of Ghent (Belgium). The enthusiastic supervision and coaching of (PhD) students was an important part of the activities in both positions.
Back in the Netherlands, he accepted the position of manager of the divisions Production, Laboratory & Distribution of the (former) blood bank Limburg (now Sanquin). Quality and (international) guidelines were keywords here.
Then, being a project manager, he carried out projects for several years to initiate and improve processes and methods. This process expertise was supported by a solid knowledge of software application management; this knowledge was applied in an industrial environment where he contributed as microbiologist / system developer to the realization of some products on the interface of biology, technique and software.
Since 2009 he has been working as an independent interim manager in the Food, Pharmaceutical and Diagnostic industry.
