Capstone: Business and Operations for Circular Bio-Economy

Dr. Emiel F.M. Wubben serves as Associate Professor of Strategic Management at Wageningen University and Research Fellow of WASS, bringing extensive expertise in business transitions toward sustainable and circular economies. After earning his doctorate in Economics from the Tinbergen Institute at Erasmus University Rotterdam in 1993, he served as Assistant Professor at Rotterdam School of Management until 2001 before joining Wageningen University

Dr. Jos Bijman serves as Associate Professor at Wageningen University & Research, where he has established himself as a prominent expert on agricultural cooperatives and producer organizations in agrifood value chains. After completing his studies in Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam, he has built an extensive career studying organizational aspects of agricultural cooperation and value chain management. His research focuses on how organizational characteristics such as internal governance, ownership structures, and member commitment affect business outcomes in agricultural cooperatives and producer organizations. As project manager of the EU H2020 CO-FRESH project, he leads research on sustainable and competitive fruit and vegetable value chains in Europe. He also manages the LIQUID project, focusing on quality improvement and inclusiveness in dairy value chains across Southeast Asia and East Africa. His influential work includes editing "Cooperatives, Economic Democratization and Rural Development" (2016), which examines the transformation of cooperatives in developing countries from public-service to member-service oriented organizations. Through his research on contract farming arrangements and producer organizations, he continues to advance understanding of how business collaboration can improve quality, innovation, and sustainability in agrifood value chains. His expertise particularly shines in analyzing how organizational structures affect the performance of agricultural cooperatives, demonstrated through his extensive work on cooperative governance models and member relationships across Europe.

Dr. Renzo Akkerman serves as Associate Professor in Operations Research and Logistics at Wageningen University & Research, bringing extensive experience from previous roles as Professor at Technical University of Munich and Associate Professor at Technical University of Denmark. After completing his MSc in Econometrics and Operations Research and PhD in Operations Management from the University of Groningen, he has built an impressive career spanning food supply chain management and sustainable operations. His research focuses on integrating food quality considerations into supply chain decisions, with his most cited work addressing quality management in food distribution and supply chain optimization. As a key instructor for the MicroMasters Programme in Business and Operations for a Circular Bio-Economy, he helps students understand the operational challenges in transitioning to sustainable business models. His expertise spans multiple areas including food supply chain design, resource utilization optimization, and sustainability in operations management. Through his work examining food-specific characteristics in supply chain planning, he has significantly influenced understanding of quality, safety, and sustainability considerations in food operations. His research has garnered over 4,000 citations, with particularly influential papers on managing fresh food quality throughout supply chains and quantitative approaches to food distribution. Currently, he leads research initiatives on circular business models and sustainable supply chain management while contributing to the development of decision support tools for biobased supply chain operations.