TEAM
Altogether, the Zeopore team combines decades of accumulated experience and covers all key disciplines of our business. On top of that, we are an international team with members from Belgium, Netherlands, France and Colombia. Zeopore is proudly supported by a network of professionals, and we are happy to enjoy the input of enthusiastic students associated with the Leuven academic domain.
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Select the Zeopore team of choice to further explore.
Kurt Du Mong
CEO
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Passionate of bringing new technologies to the market, and leading start-ups into success and growth, Kurt is the CEO of Zeopore. He is excited to lead the journey of his team towards changing the world of zeolite catalysis, and enabling the optimal use of fossil and natural raw materials.
Sandra De Clerq
Office Manager
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Sandra manages and executes the daily tasks related to CEO agenda management, administration, bookkeeping, communication and human resources. She organizes information and formalizes processes so that the companies administrative structure can be organised more efficiently and is ready for the further company growth. Her long standing experience in office management and internal sales helps a lot in this regard.
Rob Snoeijs
Communication Specialist
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Already writing and speaking on behalf of scaleup companies for 25 years, Rob Snoeijs is the communication specialist of Zeopore Technologies. Rob captures key messages and story lines related to zeolite innovations and communicates these to the general public and dedicated media in refining, petrochemical and emerging markets.
Danny Verboekend
CSO
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With more than 10 years in the world of zeolites, Danny is the main inventor of Zeopore’s technology portfolio. Based on his extensive background, Danny is responsible for the identification of optimal solutions for customers as well as streamlining production and spearheading product innovation.
Martin d'Halluin
HSE and R&D Manager
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Martin is one of the founders of Zeopore, he contributed to the development of Zeopore’s technology portfolio. Thanks to his general chemical background and high technical skills, Martin is taking charge of the development, production and quality control of Zeopore materials. He is also acting as internal prevention advisor for the company.
Henk Janssen
Senior Operations
Henk Janssen is a long-time DSM veteran who now guides the operations team in Zeopore's industrial upscaling activities. This is an essential and value-adding step in bringing our innovative zeolitic catalysts to oil refineries and petrochemical plants, to make current processes more performant, sustainable and cost-effective. In the current development phase, Zeopore is creating its position as a process technology company.
Leen Spooren
Operations Manager
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Leen focuses on the transition toward a fully autonomous production unit with dedicated operators, focused on economically producing industrial-scale volumes of mesoporous zeolites. She rubs shoulders with Henk and learns from his extensive experience during this transition.” Leen holds a master’s degree in biochemistry and biotechnology and her previous work experiences in pharma and biotech are helpful in her new role.​​​
Machteld Beyens
Laboratory Technician
One of my key personal drivers is using my scientific education to make this world a better place. I love to work with my hands in the lab rather than diving into fundamental scientific articles. As a lab technician, I like to find practical and logic solutions to further improve lab processes and organization. I hold a bachelor degree in chemistry and started my career at Exxonmobil in Machelen (BE), in the department of catalyst development. I produced zeolites from the company's raw materials, and spent hours tuning the electronic microscope to evaluate the size and shape of the crystals. A few years later, I started working at Huntsman (BE), the first ten years as a process technologist at Polyurethane Europe and later as part of the Huntsman Global Research organization.
Tatiana Sanchez
Quality Assurance Manager
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I am Colombian and hold a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Rovira i Virgili in Spain. I bring multi-year experience in quality processes and streamlined operations. Together with the team, I am establishing the next level of quality assurance and professionalized supply chain. These facilitate Zeopore in bringing our zeolite mesoporization processes towards production at larger scale. Our quality implementation addresses legislation, safety, security, logistics, testing, monitoring and control, - all to securely and efficiently release products within specifications.
Lucas Bourgoing
Process Development Engineer
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I graduated with a master's degree in bioengineering (catalytic technology) at KU Leuven (BE). This education gave me an extensive background in catalysis and during my first job assignments I gained experience in process technology and industrial engineering. I joined Zeopore at an interesting time in the company's growth trajectory. My role as a process development engineer initially started with laboratory scale production and now have moved into optimizing and maintaining larger production units being built at Zeopore. I have been made responsible for the maintenance of all equipment, from lab over pilot to larger scale units.​​​
Bert Gorinsek
Senior Operator
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With a hands-on educational background in chemical process technology, I bring both technical depth and practical know-how to our growing operations team. My early career included internships at BASF and Citribel, followed by a production shift leader role at JSR Micro in Leuven. There, I helped set up and operate a new manufacturing process, which gradually increased in scale. I contribute by preparing and executing production runs with precision and efficiency. With our scaling ambitions, more operators will soon be joining the team and I will be there to train and guide them. My role touches many aspects: organization, lab work, planning, quality, and safety.​​​