Jan Sikkema

Jan Sikkema is managing partner of Tetralinq, an innovation consultancy in Life Sciences, Food and Health. Jan studied Microbiology and Biochemistry at the University of Groningen and obtained his PhD in Industrial Microbiology at the Wageningen University in 1993. After his graduation he became Senior Researcher at the European Research Laboratories of Snow Brand Milk Products. In 1996 he joined Friesland Foods where he held several R&D management positions including R&D Manager Cheese, Manager Life Sciences Research and Corporate Technology Manager. In 2007 he was appointed Program Director of the TI Food and Nutrition, a public private partnership combining the research expertise of academia and major food companies. In 2011, after the successful international expansion of TIFN, he moved to Groningen where he initiated the Center for Development and Innovation of the University Hospital (UMCG) and became Director of the Business Generator Groningen, the Technology Transfer Organization of the University of Groningen and the UMCG.