“My role is to bridge the gap between practice and science by helping to describe practical problems, to show how problems are solved in the Netherlands, helping to implement the results, etc.”

Ritsche Anne (Rian) Kloosterman was born on 6 October 1958 in Oosterwolde, Ooststellingwerf, the Netherlands. He finished his secondary school in 1977 at the Ichthus College in Drachten. In the same year he started with civil engineering at Delft University of Technology and in 1985 he received his master’s degree with a specialisation in hydraulic engineering and hydrology.

An internship at the national institute for drinking water (now RIVM) made Rian enthusiastic for the challenges of the drinking water supply and this resulted in his first job as hydrologist at Waterleiding Maatschappij Overijssel. In this job he developed hydrologic models for water resources, and he worked as stakeholder manager. In 1989 he became team manager research and development, responsible for stakeholder management and (geo)hydrologic- and environmental impact studies.

In 1996 he became manager strategy and water resources, responsible for corporate and infrastructure strategy, new business and water resources. In 2001 he followed the senior executive programme on leadership and innovation at the London business school. In 2002 after a merger between Waterleiding Maatschappij Overijssel, the water department of NUON and Waterbedrijf Gelderland into Vitens, Rian became manager water resources, responsible for securing, and sustainable integrating in the environment of existing water resources, and the development of new water resources. In 2006 Vitens merged with Hydron Utrecht and Hydron Flevoland and he became manager water resources in the new organisation.

In 2011 Rian became strategist drinking water infrastructure with a focus on strategic asset management and long-term planning. He also became theme ambassador for the theme integral asset management of the innovation agenda of Vitens. To deepen his knowledge on strategic asset management he started in 2014 a PhD at Delft University of Technology. He followed at the International School for Philosophy (ISFP) the courses systematics of philosophy (2012-2013) and philosophic thinking methods (2015-20I6).

Rian is member of the programme committee and member of the theme centre future of the infrastructure of Nginfra. Within NGinfra large infrastructure companies in the Netherlands work towards an integrated vision on how to equip the infrastructure of the future. He is also member of the board of RIWA, a collaboration of water companies using the river Rhine for the production of drinking water. Rian has done several projects to improve the drinking water supply in developing countries.