Board and staff

The Supervisory Board is the body that supervises the Executive Board. The general management is in the hands of the Executive Board. The Executive Boards is accountable for its actions to the Supervisory Board. Members of the Supervisory Board:
• Gerard van der Sterre, chair person
• Inge Rosendaal, secretary
• Clemens Nijhuis, treasurer
• Christel Hoogland

The Executive Board consists of the director of CooP-Africa, Cycling out of Poverty; Luuk Eickmans.

Marieke de Wild is Programme Manager, and Ineke Leenders is Financial Officer. 

Gerard van der Sterre, chair person

Gerard van der Sterre finished his bachelor’s degree traffic planning successfully in Tilburg (The Netherlands) in 1976 and his masters degree at the University of Birmingham (UK) in 1977. From that year onwards Gerard has worked professionally as a traffic planner. For the last 17 years he has been working for Arcadis Netherlands. From 1998 until 2008 as interim manager for a number of local authorities. From 2003 until 2008 Gerard also was chairman of  the works council for Arcadis (3000 employees). In 2007 Gerard was invited to join the board of  the foundation CooP-Africa, Cycling out of Poverty. He did not need a lot of time to react positively, because he realised that this foundation could contribute to a change in the poverty of African families. The possession of a bike helps to generate more income in a environmental way. The bike can also contribute very well in access to work, school and healthcare. By the end of 2010 Gerard was elected as chairman of the foundation. After visits to projects in Kenya and Uganda his motivation and enthusiasm have increased even more.

Inge Rosendaal, secretary  

Inge Rosendaal has been working for many years as staff member of the Personnel and Organisation department of a gymnasium. In 2013, she enjoyed a sabbatical and stayed in Jinja (Uganda) for three months. Here she worked as a volunteer and coached a group of women who wanted to engage in income generating activities. She saw that owning a bicycle can really increase opportunities for people living in poverty. Some women Inge worked with, were able to increase their market due to the bicycle. She developed plans with the women to organise bicycle tours for tourists and volunteers to informal settlements where the women live. The tourists are then guided by the women through the area. Furthermore, Inge saw in Uganda that a bicycle also increases chances for students of completing their education. And good education is a necessary basis for further development. When Inge visited the project “Hospice Jinja” with a few Irish doctors, she noticed that a bicycle also has a significant impact in health care. It was in Jinja where Inge came in contact with CooP-Africa. When Luuk asked her to become secretary to the board of Africa-CooP, she accepted without hesitation. She is well disposed towards the activities of CooP-Africa, and it is also a nice way to stay in contact with Africa and the women she worked with.
 

Clemens Nijhuis, treasurer

Clemens Nijhuis has a diploma in business administration. After his studies he worked for several employers and gained experience in financial administration. Currently he works at an accounting firm where he is concerned with financial administration, sales tax return and preparation of financial statements. At one of his former employers he met Ineke Leenders who asked him to join the board of Coop-Africa as treasurer. In 2010 he went on holiday to Kenya and Tanzania, which he has kept very warm memories. The people are, despite the poverty, very cheerful, spontaneous and sincere. In this way, he hopes he can do something for them. In addition, he likes cycling very much, leaving 2 large interfaces with Coop-Africa.

Christel Hoogland 

Christel Hoogland has her background in the international development cooperation. She worked in several countries in Asia and Africa. Her heart lies in the cities where she worked on urban development and multistakeholder initiatives to improve the living conditions in slum areas.  One of the cities where she worked for Cordaid was Kisumu, Kenya. This is where Christel and CooP-Africa met. The social entrepreneurship of CooP-Africa attracted Christel to the organisation. CooP-Africa has proven to be creative and able to turn opportunities that bikes do offer in concrete results. This approach, that also builds on the strengths, ideas and energy of people has improved the live of the ‘bikers’.  A great organisation that she wants to support!

Luuk Eickmans, director

After finishing his bachelor’s degree Sports, Marketing and Management in Tilburg (the Netherlands) in 2001 Luuk Eickmans has worked commercial oriented jobs combined with his big passion travelling. From 2006 until 2009 Luuk has been working for the fitness industry in the Netherlands as sales manager and later as club manager. But during his stay in Uganda he experienced and saw the impact of a bicycle on the mobility of people living in Africa. And how increased sustainable mobility brings long term improvement to the life’s of African families. As a entrepreneurial marketeer at heart it struck him that something simple as a bicycle could make the difference for poverty alleviation. Both by opening new job opportunities, make current jobs more efficient, but also by starting at the roots to improve access to education. That moved him to set up the foundation Cycling out of Poverty and use his skills, knowledge and dedication towards improving the access of African families to income generating activities, education and health care by promoting the use of bicycles.

Marieke de Wild, programme manager

In 2011 Marieke started as Programme Manager for CooP-Africa. She coaches CooP-Africa’s partner organisations in Africa in the execution of the bicycle projects, and takes care of relation management with partners in the South. Marieke has degrees in traffic engineering and in international development studies. Before joining CooP-Africa she worked as a traffic engineer for an international consultancy firm for 5 years. And she also worked for the NGO Interface for Cycling Expertise (I-CE) for 6 years. At I-CE she was coordinating support to civil society organisations in India, Latin America and Africa, who were giving pressure and orientation to the urban authorities with regards to the integration of cycling in the urban development process.

 Ineke Leenders, financial officer

After finishing her high school, Ineke Leenders worked for years in administrative accounting, specifically bookkeeping. In 2009 Luuk asked her to become treasurer of CooP-Africa, because the financial workload grew. She didn’t need much time to think about that since she was already familiar with the good work of the foundation. After her visit to Kenya where the bicycle workshop (funded by KLM) was opened, her motivation to continue increased. In 2012 she stopped being treasurer and started as financial officer. She hopes to be able to contribute for many more years, with the motto: “Cycling moves people!”