Erik Oostwegel Joins The Ocean Cleanup Supervisory Board, Succeeding Frederik Gerner

The Ocean Cleanup has confirmed a change to its Supervisory Board as Erik Oostwegel joining the Supervisory Board as of September 20, 2023, with Frederik Gerner stepping down after eight years of membership. We thank Frederik for his vital role in The Ocean Cleanup’s growth to our current position, and we look forward to the positive and innovative contribution that Erik will bring to our Supervisory Board as we scale up our operations and continue to bring new solutions to the plastic pollution problem.

As a registered non-profit organization in the Netherlands, The Ocean Cleanup operates under a mandated two-tier governance structure: the Management Team, led by the CEO, is charged with executive decisions, while the independent Supervisory Board monitors the strategy and management of the organization while acting as a sounding board for the Management Team. All major Management Team decisions and resolutions require the approval of the Supervisory Board, ensuring transparency and accountability in decision-making. You can read more about The Ocean Cleanup’s governance structure on our Foundation Details page.

The Ocean Cleanup is excited to announce that Erik Oostwegel joined the Supervisory Board on September 20, 2023. Erik brings a wealth of executive management experience to The Ocean Cleanup, delivering complex international engineering and consultancy solutions at the highest standards, while strongly focusing on environmental and social impact. He has devoted his career to Royal HaskoningDHV, where he served in many roles, most recently as CCO and CEO. As a consulting engineer, Erik is passionate about making the world a better place by going the extra mile for sustainable solutions and utilizing the power of innovation and digitalization. Erik is convinced that by working with all relevant stakeholders, we are brighter, stronger, faster, and able to create the most meaningful solutions.

At the same time, we are saying goodbye to Frederik Gerner as a member of the SB. Frederik was part of The Ocean Cleanup SB for the last eight years and was pivotal in strategy and governance formation during a dynamic period of growth and development. He was instrumental in many ways through his creative engineering and business skills and enabling the team to progress. We are grateful for his contribution and wish him well in all his future endeavors.

‘Our Supervisory Board plays a crucial role in providing oversight to the Management Team,’ said Boyan Slat, Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup. ‘We thank Frederik for his eight years of service, and he has the gratitude of our entire crew for his role in helping us reach our current strong position. We also welcome Erik to the SB, and we believe his experience with large-scale infrastructure projects in a variety of environments around the world, including in the Global South, will be crucial as The Ocean Cleanup moves to the next phase of our mission.’

Following these changes, the current composition of the Supervisory Board is Bert Bruggeman (Chairman), Jaska de Bakker (Finance & Governance), Chris van der Vorm (Communications), and Erik Oostwegel (Technology and R&D). Feike Sijbesma supports the Supervisory Board as Senior Advisor.