Our Team

In 1990 Henk Bles founded Bles Dairies Livestock, later he expanded his business with dairy consultancy and distribution for Semex in the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Russia, which also formed the basis for Bles Dairies Genetics. Henk Bles’ goal: ensure a strong and sustainable international dairy sector for today and tomorrow.

Jurjen Boerrigter started his successful career at Bles Dairies in 2006 and moved to Koepon Holding as Global Business Development Manager in 2017. In 2020 he returned to Bles Dairies as Managing Director. With his extensive experience in the international dairy sector, we are confident that he will turn this new challenge at Bles Dairies into a success.

Rutger started his successful career at Nedap in 2004 and moved to Altagenetics as Country manager Benelux in 2016. With his extensive experience in the international dairy sector, we are confident that he will turn this challenge at Bles Dairies into a success and will be a great addition to our team and make Bles dairies grow internationally.

After having worked for 30 years as dairy trainer at a practical training center, Anne works now as dairy trainer and reproduction and fertility specialist. He is mainly concerned with the implementation of training courses, as part of the support and optimization of dairy farms worldwide. He provides courses on a wide range of dairy topics, such as hoof trimming and courses on modern dairy farm management.

Wytze Heida is dairy development specialist. He has more than 30 years experience in dairy development projects word wide. Last years he mostly engages in small-medium scale development in Africa and Asia, he is concerned with project and team management, advising, extension works and training. Through his numerous experiences abroad, he is highly inter culturally competent and a real connector. This makes him skilled in social interactions and dairy knowledge transfer.

With over 9 years work experience in the field in East Africa and several higher academic grades in different disciplines, Nieke has an excellent profile for functions that involve management, analytical and technical skills, communication and teaching, as well as the ability to strategize. Her history of project management, participating in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams, developing and conducting studies and training, proposal writing and field experience proves my capability of self-reliance, innovation and producing results in new and challenging environments.

With a focus on further developing and marketing farm management programs and services, nationally and internationally.

Berend de Leeuw is educated as a veterinarian and worked as ambulant veterinary surgeon in the Netherlands and Ireland. In 2002 he started his international career as resident raw milk sourcing and quality expert. Since then, he has been involved in various raw milk development programs with the focus on small holder dairy farm development, raw milk quality improvement, Quality Based Milk Payment Scheme’s and education of local staff and farmers.

Dirk Harting is agricultural project manager and consultant in dairy business operations. He worked in the Middle-East, Asia, Africa and Latin America and has over 15 years of management experience with large-scale dairy farming operations. He is also highly experienced in small-scale dairy development programs and projects in Asia, encompassing milk collection methodology, milk quality control systems, milk quality based payment systems and dairy husbandry extension.

Rudie Brok grew up on a dairy farm (260 cows and 130 ha) in the Netherlands. His expertise lies with strategic, operational and financial aspects of dairy development. This includes (financial) business planning, (technical) feasibility studies, project management, farm- and household economics and livestock monitoring & development. His both practical as strategic experience make him a valuable team member.

Since 30 years Peter Nicolay is linked to Bles Dairies Livestock. Throughout the course of his career he has selected and purchased a vast number of cattle, for a wide variety of destinations. He selected and purchased cattle at dairy farms and quarantine farms, especially in the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany. In huge export orders e.g. with destination Russia he is the driving force in our livestock team. Within our valuable export orders within Europe he operates merely independently.

Frans Schers works for almost 25 years at Bles Dairies and has a lot of experience in selecting, buying and selling cattle. He also helps selecting bulls for breedingprograms. For commercial cattle and showwinners, Frans Schers can help you realise your goals.

Hillary can help your dairy in improvement of the quality and quantity of your milk / Increase farm reproduction results / Increase yield and quality of your fodder crops / Training on all dairy topics, such as animal nutrition, animal health etc. / Reduce your bio security and food safety risk / Manage your farms on an interim or permanent basis / Solve your farm’s animal waste problems / Develop your business plan and assess your strategy.

Judith Kalya is financial administrator for Bles Dairies East Africa. Besides finance, she is also responsible for human recourses and procurement. This makes her a great and valuable team member. Judith is very dedicated in administration and keeps accurate book keeping of all events that are organized by Bles Dairies East Africa, such as sales of bull semen to dairy farmers, organizing trainings, field days and workshops.