Board

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.

Melanie Custers has worked within IP since 1994. In March 2024 she started as Senior Patent Administrator at Genmab in Utrecht. Before that, she was Senior Formalities Officer IP for nearly 22 years at Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V. (part of Johnson & Johnson). Together with four other colleagues, she manages all formalities and administrative processes of the IPR Department at Genmab. Melanie is Board Member of the Platform Formalities Officers and responsible for the secretariat and for organizing 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.

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.

Frank Regeling has been working within IE since 2014. He started at V.O. as an employee of the Foreign Patent administration. Since 2019, he has been working as supervisor of the central administration at NLO and is responsible for the patents and trademarks mail-processes, PCT conversions, EP validations/Unitary Patent and management of the online filing administration.