Changes in the VORtech team

New Scientific Software Engineers 

On April 1st, Cees Wolfs joined VORtech. He recently graduated from the Faculty of Applied Physics in Delft. For his graduation project, he worked on simulations of superconducting circuits. The minor in computational science and engineering that he previously followed was very useful for this. Within VORtech, he will initially strengthen the team around web development, but the intention is that he will also be deployed on other projects soon. 

On September 1st, Louis Henry will join us. Louis is originally from France but speaks fluent English and some Dutch. He studied applied physics in Paris, obtained his PhD in high-energy physics, and then worked in Italy, Spain, and Switzerland. In 2024, he came to the Netherlands to work at the eScience center, from which he is leaving due to a reorganization. We are pleased to add someone with his knowledge and experience to the team. 

Changes in the administration department 

There have been many changes in the administration department. Marieke Dezaire has retired, and Marijke Kuipers has left to have more time for her own business and her family. They have been succeeded by Cynthia van Velzen and Renske Cornelissen, who have quickly shown that they can take over the tasks of Marieke and Marijke well. 

Farewell to Marieke Dezaire and Marijke Kuipers 

The most notable of all these changes is perhaps the farewell to Marieke Dezaire. Marieke joined VORtech in 2010 as a management assistant. Over the years, she has been an indispensable force who has been important in guiding the sometimes turbulent growth of VORtech. 

Initially, she did all the administrative work herself, including bookkeeping and employee administration, as well as contacts with suppliers and various other practical matters. In 2012, the daily bookkeeping was taken over by Lian de Krieger, and in 2022, Marijke Kuipers was hired for employee administration. Over the years, Marieke developed into an office manager with final responsibility for all administrative processes. 

She was the support and confidant not only of the director but of all the partners, whom she assisted with (sometimes stubborn) advice and action. She has been largely responsible for ensuring that VORtech has always been a very solid company administratively. 

Marieke has chosen to retire early. We wholeheartedly wish her a wonderful retirement. We will always be grateful for her tremendous contribution. Few could have brought what she brought. 

Marijke Kuipers left on January 1st to spend more time on her own business and her family. Both she and we regret having to say goodbye because she fit perfectly in her role around employee matters and also enjoyed it immensely. But we think it is a good choice to bring focus, and we wish her much happiness both in her business and in her personal life. 

The new colleagues in the administration department 

On February 1st, Cynthia van Velzen joined VORtech. She mainly takes over Marieke’s tasks and is therefore the point of contact for many of the administrative processes. Cynthia was a logical choice because a few years ago she briefly stepped in on our administration. Although she was quite happy with her previous employer, she saw opportunities within VORtech to take on a broader range of tasks, allowing her to do more with her education. 

In addition to Cynthia, Renske Cornelissen started on March 1st. Her tasks are primarily in the area of employee matters. Renske has extensive experience in this area, which allows her to help further elevate this within VORtech. After her previous job, Renske stayed home for a few years for her children and now wanted to return to work alongside caring for her family. 

Together with Lian de Krieger, our reliable force in bookkeeping for many years, we now have a very strong team. With the new colleagues, the administration now has more hours than those who are leaving, creating space to gradually allocate more organizational tasks that are currently being done by other colleagues. 

The system administration department 

Since the founding of VORtech, system administration has been done by some of the scientific programmers, occasionally helped by contractors. With the gradual growth of the company, it became increasingly difficult for these colleagues to give this enough attention alongside their work for clients. 

Therefore, Peter Bossers was hired at the beginning of 2020. Peter has many years of experience in system administration and has worked for many large and small companies. This experience has proven useful as we have been able to make many improvements to the systems in recent years. 

It became clear that a single system administrator was not sufficient for a growing organization. Therefore, Arno Wolters was hired in 2024. Arno comes from a company that is very similar in size and activities to VORtech, and he was able to quickly make a very useful contribution. 

Peter and Arno ‘inherit’ a system that has grown gradually with the growth of the company and still shows many traces of it. They are now rapidly streamlining and rationalizing it. The fact that we as an organization want to be NIS2-compliant this year and also achieve our ISO27k certification by the end of the year provides a nice framework for this.