Robert Lakeman

Background

About Robert Lakeman

Started working in 1987 as a research analyst in a joint project between the Dr Daniel den Hoed clinic (cancer research) and TNO institute in Rijswijk The Netherlands till 1989. Next job was with Saybolt van Duyn, an independent laboratory working in the petrochemical, chemical and eadible oil field. Here I started working as a routine analyst and after several intermediate positions ended my career as the operational manager in 1996. In 1996 is joined Eastman Chemical company as Laboratory Manager, responsible for setting up the laboratory, getting the people in, installing the equipement, training the people and get the lab operational. In I was offered a new challenge in combining the Laboratory with the QA managers responsibility, my responsibility to finalyze the ISO certification and keep the QA system up and running. By 2008 Eastman sold the business to Indorama and I was challenged to transfer all Laboratory and QA systems from Eastman to the Indorama systems, making sure that the customers kept good and reliable QC data and QA Documents. In 2009 I was asked for the position of PET operations manager managing the operational crews and daystaff, my first task was to restructure the organisation and make it more cost competitive again. End 2010 Indorama announced its investment in an expansion project doubling our PET capacity, my role is to manage the organisation and the resources and make sure we are ready to start production at the targetted date, safe and within the budget, making sure the running production plant is also meeting expectations. My goals are to manage the PET production site effectively, merge the operational and day team into a joint effective and supportive team and lower boundaries for this site by exceeding expectations to further invest in the site. After having worked 28 years with Indorama as a PET operations manager, the company decided to fully stop production at our location in Europoort resulting in the loss of jobs for all its employees and ending a beautiful site. I was fortunate to find another role at ADM Europoort as a super Intendent Refinery. ADM is an American based world class multinational making edible oils, vitamins, flavours, animal food etc. and so far it has been a privilege to be welcomed in the warm family of ADM