ForFarmers has appointed Ad van Wesel, 55, as director of ForFarmers' Nutrition Innovation Center (NIC) effective July 1. Innovation and research is core to ForFarmers' strategy and is the responsibility of the NIC. Through the NIC, ForFarmers works on continuously improving the performance of its products by improving, for example, feed efficiency. Social issues, such as animal health and welfare, reducing medicine usage, the impact of animal husbandry on the environment and the utilization of raw materials, are other important research themes.
van Wesel has more than 30 years of international experience as technical and R&D leader at Provimi and later Cargill. He has extensive experience in leading nutrition and innovation teams and in cooperating with knowledge institutes and trial farms and developing many differentiated feeding concepts. At the moment, he is Global Species Technology Leader Swine for Cargill. van Wesel has Dutch nationality and will be based on the head office of ForFarmers in Lochem, the Netherlands.
Nutrition Innovation Center director
van Wesel will be managing the centrally organized team of species specific nutritionists and innovation managers as the NIC Director. The NIC is not only responsible for ForFarmers' research and innovation program, but also for the technical performance of all products supplied to customers. The NIC works closely together with both the ForFarmers species teams in each country, as well as with ForFarmers' strategic partners, such as Nutreco, with whom joint innovation projects are undertaken. The NIC carries out some 40 to 50 research projects every year.
