Willemien Terpstra, top executive at chemical group LyondellBasell, will become CEO of Gasunie. The appointment will be announced by the Ministry of Finance.
Terpstra is responsible for CO2 reduction of the group worldwide at LyondellBasell. She succeeds Han Fennema, who announced quite unexpectedly earlier this year that he would be stepping down from Gasunie after almost ten years. He will retire on November 1 this year. In the meantime, Janneke Hermes, the current CFO of Gasunie, will take over the head office.
According to Pieter Duisenberg, chairman of the Supervisory Board of Gasunie, Terspstra is an ‘enthusiastic successor’ to Fennema and she has the right papers and ambition for the energy transition.
Big change
Gasunie is going through a major change: from gas to expansion in hydrogen, heat, CO2 processing and filtered gas. Fennema prepared the transition from a gas transport company, leaning on the large Groningen gas field, to an infrastructure manager for hydrogen, for example, says Duisenberg. “Han has thereby laid a strong foundation for a new chapter in Gasunie’s history.”
Willemien Terpstra studied business administration at Nyenrode Business University and obtained her MBA at Emory University in Atlanta in the United States. She worked at Arco Chemical, a predecessor of LyondellBasell, in Rotterdam. She is now responsible for sustainability, energy saving and CO2 reduction at LyondellBasell worldwide.