About us
Partners
The founders of Ecosystem Navigators have dedicated much of their careers to building, managing, and shaping alliances, clusters, and innovation ecosystems, bringing a wealth of hands-on experience. With access to a global network of leading experts – from innovation specialists to economists – we deliver tailor-made solutions based on proven methods and tools, executed by experienced professionals.
Roger van Hoesel
Co-founder
Connecting strategy with system change – regional, national, and international
Roger van Hoesel has been working for more than twenty years on establishing and strengthening innovation ecosystems in agriculture, food, and logistics. His strength lies in bringing together vision, partnerships, and execution power – with an eye for societal impact as well as national and international connections.
As co-founder of Ecosystem Navigators, he helps organizations, clusters, and governments build powerful ecosystems and realize future-proof strategies. In doing so, he not only brings sharp content expertise, but also an extensive (inter)national network and experience in creating movement across sectors, interests, and countries.
Roger was for many years the figurehead of Foodvalley NL, expanding it into an internationally leading innovation system.
He is the initiator of Food-X Netherlands and Food Mountain – a platform for sustainable food innovation. He also plays key roles in initiatives such as Logistics Valley and Roots Innovation Hub.
His experience ranges from leading international missions to designing governance structures, from setting up cross-sectoral programs to inspiring young professionals worldwide. He has contributed to ecosystem development in countries including Thailand, Brazil, Uganda, Switzerland, and New Zealand.
His drive: complex challenges call for system change, committed collaboration, and tangible results. That is what Roger dedicates himself to every day – with energy and vision.
Chris Karman
Co-founder
Educated as an ecologist, Chris understands the importance of the relationships between the players in an ecosystem. In his career, relationships have become more and more important. He worked with research organisations, government and industry in a broad range of sectors (including maritime, waterworks, agriculture, food and chemistry). His real profession and passion is understanding and applying business relationships. Working with people to achieve new common goals, either leading or coaching, has a much broader scope of application than the research alone. Working in applied research, Chris took various positions from research manager, head of department and commercial director of one of the Sciences groups of Wageningen University and Research.
Chris played a key role in the merge of the marine research institutes of Wageningen UR and TNO; founded the Maritime Campus Netherlands and was a member of the leading team for development of the Amsterdam Institute of Advanced Metropolitan Solutions. As an independent consultant Chris has supported the development of many initiatives, including a.o. the Foodvalley 2030 programme (acceleration of the agrifood innovation cluster in the Netherlands), the Salination-cluster (‘Zoet Zout Knooppunt’, with a focus on connection of academia, policy makers and farmers around critical salinization challenges) and DigiShape (creation of an innovation platform for digital transformation of the dutch water sector).
Huiberdien Sweeris
Partner
Huiberdien Sweeris is a partner at Ecosystem Navigators, helping organizations, consortia, and regions design and implement collaborative programs. She holds a degree in International Land and Water Management from Wageningen University and specializes in connecting people, ideas, and organizations to address societal and economic challenges.
Throughout her career, Huiberdien has worked with public and private partners across water, agriculture, food, education, and talent development. She excels at translating shared ambitions into well-supported programs, building ecosystems that link policy and practice, and turning ideas into tangible results.
Her experience spans national and international contexts in academia, consultancy, and network organizations. At Wageningen University and Research and MetaMeta , she coordinated international capacity-building projects. At the Netherlands Water Partnership, she initiated and led programs such as the Young Expert Programme (YEPProgrammes), providing young professionals with international experience in water, food, and energy. She also developed educational programs for youth and organized platforms connecting government, industry, and education.
Recent projects include FoodX, an international gateway for Dutch agrifood innovations, designing a knowledge exchange program for Cluster Menara, and co-creating a Young Professionals Programme in the maritime sector.
Global Partner Network
We have a vast global network of top-notch experts both in specific domains, ranging from innovation experts to economists.
Adam Lyle
Regional lead Asia
Adam has combined a career in management consulting, change management and training with a passion for sustainable, purpose-driven business. He has worked with the private and public sectors to challenge and stimulate the way they develop and roll out strategy, including how they approach innovation in the creation and deployment of the products and services.
Adam is a Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Padang & Co (Singapore). He believes that enabling vibrant partnerships between Enterprise and Startups is a key pillar of the Future of Work and will drive a new wave of innovation and resilient ecosystems. This led Padang & Co to develop world-leading capabilities in enabling Enterprises seek to get closer and innovate faster with Startups, other Enterprise and Government partners.
Paulo Silveira
Regional lead Latin America
Paulo is a food engineer with an extensive career in the private sector. He led many companies as CEO, amongst which Danisco Ingredients South America.
Paulo is CEO and founder of FoodTechHub Brasil. FoodTechHub Br (Sao Paulo) stands for cutting edge innovation, knowledge and entrepreneurship. Created in 2018, FoodTech Hub Br helps companies identifying relevant sources of science-tech knowledge, support and partnerships.
FoodTech Hub Br is the leading ecosystem in Latin America and has a panoramic view of food industry developments, thanks to the expertise of its food system leaders and the of innovation communities.
Rob Trice
Regional lead North America
Rob Trice is the Founder of The Mixing Bowl. In 2013, he began to leverage his background in telecom, mobile and internet venture capital to the application of information technology to the food and agriculture sectors. He is also the Founder of Better Food Ventures, making seed-stage investments aligned with the theme of applying IT to the food and agriculture industries. Rob previously worked at Swisscom Ventures, SK Telecom Ventures, Nokia Growth Partners and Nokia Venture Partners (now BlueRun Ventures). Prior to his days in venture capital work, he was at DIRECTV in LA and at a think-tank in DC, the Center for Strategic & International Studies. He also founded the non-profit Corporate Innovators Huddle and serves on the board of San Francisco-based engaged philanthropy organization, Full Circle Fund. He splits his time between Menlo Park and Pescadero, CA.
