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Leadership, innovation and sustainability have been central throughout the career of Koen Janssen, a Belgian polymer chemist with more than three decades of experience in science, industry and academia.

After earning his PhD in Polymer Chemistry at KU Leuven in 1991, he began working at then chemical company DSM (currently dsm-firmenich), where he worked across a wide spectrum of technologies and products, from polyolefins and elastomers to biomaterials and pharmaceutical ingredients. Between 2008 and 2014 Janssen led DSM’s global material science group, supporting businesses worldwide.

He also served as Director of Chemelot, one of the biggest clusters of chemical industry in the Netherlands, where he helped to co-create a vision for the industrial site to make the move towards sustainability and circularity. He contributed to the development of the Brightlands Chemelot Campus as a multi-enterprise R&D hub.

From October 2022 to early 2025, Janssen was Managing Director of Brightlands Materials Center on behalf of TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research). In this role, he also held leadership positions in national and international innovation platforms, including Syschemiq, a European project focused on the circular plastics economy, and the R&D Hub for Plastic Waste Processing, a World Economic Forum initiative aimed at making plastic end-of-use processing more sustainable and efficient.

In March 2025, Janssen became President of the Executive Board of ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø. In Eindhoven, he places strong emphasis on connecting people and disciplines. Central to his approach is inclusive leadership and a commitment to social safety. Through the One ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø vision, Janssen underlines the importance of trust, collaboration, and responsibility, both within the university community and in its partnerships with industry, government, and Europe’s wider innovation ecosystem.