Paulus Verschuren
Paulus Verschuren is Dutch and born in Breda, The Netherlands. He studied biology at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands and graduated in 1980. In 1981 he joined the research group Biosciences, Nutrition and Safety of the Unilever Research Laboratory, Vlaardingen, The Netherlands, as an animal pathologist where in 1985 he became Section Manager of the section Pathology and Animal Care. During these years he carried out background and applied nutrition and toxicology research on a variety of issues related to diet and health including cardiovascular disease, hypertension, cancer, and novel foods as well as toxicological aspects of fats and fat processing. In 1989 he was transferred to Unilever Head Office in London (UK) where he was deputising the Head of Environmental Safety Assurance responsible for the overall Unilever Product Safety Assurance and the environment. From 1992 until 1996 he was the Executive Director of the European branch of the International Life Sciences Institute in Brussels. In 1996, he re-joined Unilever as Member of the Management Committee of the Unilever Nutrition Centre based at the Vlaardingen Laboratory. In 2000 he was appointed as Director External Relations and Deputy Director of the Unilever Health Institute. In addition to this position became Chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Life Sciences Institute – ILSI Europe and member of the Executive Committee of ILSI International. Until this current year 2010, he headed the Partnership Development Group in Unilever Foods. Since 2005 and he chaired the GAIN Business Alliance from 2005 to 2010. Currently Paulus Verschuren occupies the position of Senior Strategic Advisor Private Sector and Development Cooperation, for Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Netherlands.
