In my view

In January 1998, I started in my new position as head of IPPA, which is now PPTA. I remember when I came, that one of the first things I did was to undergo media training. As a European, as a Dutchman, I had some exposure to media, but nothing compared to what could happen in the USA. Intense training occurred and turned out to be very necessary. At the end of January, I had my first Board meeti…

Many times, people have asked me if I would write a book about my experiences. I decided not to do that for many reasons. What I will do is post some of my interesting experiences and lessons that I learned over the years. Sometimes you must walk a different path than what people expect to have an impact. Today I will write about one example. In 1997, PPTA introduced voluntary standards to demons…

Several years ago PPTA organized the annual IPPC meeting in Dublin Ireland. During one of the coffee breaks I saw a colleague who had been active in the industry for many years, especially in the field of ant-D immunoglobulins. His name was Robert (Bob) Suarez. He was born in Cuba and fled to the United States in the early 60’s He was retired and it was a pleasure to see him again. We had a nice…

Scary As I am writing this I am in The Netherlands and see information about the liberation of Auschwitz, now 80 years ago. I was able to visit Auschwitz in 2008 and I paid my respect to the many victims of the Holocaust. I took  the to Oswiecim and was thinking about the many people that made this train ride and never came back. On television I saw many documentaries about the prosecution of J…

About 15 years ago that the owner of one of the manufacturers of plasma derived medicinal products wrote me a letter and asked me to personally close the plasma collection centers along the Mexican border in the USA. Mexican citizens who were in the possession of an US issued Visa, were able to cross the border and donate their plasma and received a compensation for it. The reasons for the letter…