Board

Arthur van Steenbergen has worked within IP since 1992. He started in the administration department at V.O. and became familiar with all aspects of IP. Since 2008 he has been Manager Operations within Unilever Patent Group. He is responsible for Support and the administrative processes on the sites of Vlaardingen, Shanghai, Mumbai and Bangalore.

Melanie Custers has worked within IP since 1994. Together with a patent attorney she was responsible for setting-up the patent department at MOGEN International, a plant biotech company. After the closure of MOGEN in 2002, she started as a Senior Formalities Officer IP at Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V. (formerly Crucell, since 2011 part of Johnson & Johnson). In her day-to-day work she is responsible for all formalities and administrative processes of the patent department of Janssen in Leiden. As a member of the Platform Formalities Officers board she is responsible for the secretariat and events.

Richard Loef started his IP career at V.O. Patents and Trademarks in 2010. At V.O. he started out as an administrative assistant and eventually became the team leader of the central patent formalities department in 2013. Since 2022 he started at ASML as team lead for paralegals in the Corporate Intellectual Patent department. Richard has a strong focus on optimizing business processes in order to mitigate risks and achieve a highly efficient way of working.

Sherral Kertowidjojo started in 2009 as Branch Assistant at EP&C in Amsterdam. In 2016 she graduated for the Certified Formalities Officer course. As a Formalities Officer she supports the patent attorneys in their daily work and is responsible for all formalities and administrative processes of a patent application. As a board member of the Platform Formalities Officer, she is responsible for inter alia the website and the newsletter (Communication Committee).

Shanna Grotenhuis has been working within IP since 2004. She has experienced the profession from the perspective of the private practice as well as the industry. Since 2018 she has been working as a paralegal with Jacobs Douwe Egberts. In this role she is supporting the patent attorneys with the management of the patent portfolio and working on confidentiality statements with the R&D department. As board member she is responsible for the website and newsletter as a member of the communication committee.

Sandra van Beek has worked within IP since 1994. After working for some years in private practice, she joined various international companies and was responsible for formalities in the field of trademarks and designs as well as patents and domain names. Since 2021 she is Manager IP Operations at Akzo Nobel where she is responsible for the administrative processes of the IP department.

Sabine Runia has been working at Arnold & Siedsma since 2000. She started as an IP Assistant and continued as Senior Formalities Officer. In 2015 she also became ISO coordinator. She is currently Team Lead of the Central Administration and the Secretarial Support Office at the head office in The Hague. In her daily work she is responsible for the administrative work processes within Arnold & Siedsma, the ISO certification and she is member of the Quality Team.