Education

MSc in Agriculture Economics at Wageningen Agriculture University, The Netherlands. Specialized in tropical farm management systems.

Experience
Born in rural Kenya in between corn and tea fields, he later moved to Zeeland, The Netherlands. Here, the scenery was dominated by potato fields and apple orchards. His tropical background and childhood in rural areas inspired him to focus his professional life on assisting farmers to escape poverty, and the development of sustainable agriculture.

After his graduation in 1996, he worked for Wageningen UR as an agriculture economic consultant, and later became project manager of several large applied research projects in the agriculture sectors of Asia and Africa. From 2001, he focused his project portfolio on Vietnam, moved there in 2004, and setup a project office for Wageningen UR.

I love to develop, grow , build and I’m  driven to make a difference.

Inspired by the entrepreneurial spirit of the Vietnamese and seeing the need for professional and sustainable agriculture sourcing systems, he decided to start Fresh Studio in 2006 together with Irmen Mantingh. This was driven by two important factors. Firstly, the belief that much productivity and sustainability gains could be achieved in the agricultural sector of Vietnam, from which both farmers and consumers would benefit. Secondly, in the agriculture sector they often wondered why so little marketing and branding efforts took place in comparison with the fast moving consumer goods sector?  The agricultural sector is often only focused on production and thus rarely communicates with consumers. As a result of this, agriculture products are often perceived as cheap commodities. They wanted to change this with talented multi-disciplinary teams, who together have the required knowledge and expertise to advise their clients as to every stage of food chains in Asia.

Fresh Studio®
At Fresh Studio, he focuses on business development. As Vietnam develops into a global agricultural powerhouse, as one of the largest exporters for a wide range of agriculture products, with a strong and large domestic market, there is a growing need for professional sourcing systems, applied R&D, consumer and market insights. Based on the needs of the clients, they setup dedicated consulting teams, which advise, train, establish and/or manage for a growing portfolio of clients those operations which they prefer to outsource to Fresh Studio. With over 15 years of experience in developing (smallholder) farming sourcing systems, Vietnam is a very exciting place for him to live and to work.

What makes Siebe tick
He loves to develop, grow, and build, and he is driven to make a difference. During this process, the most exciting part is to identify talented people whose values and ambitions match, and with whom a complementary team can be formed to achieve…. almost anything.