My mission to provide nutritious and affordable products

The new product development of infant and toddler nutrition for our Friso brand globally is a big responsibility. ‘’I keep that in my mind and heart when the going gets tough’’. Herda is resilient by nature and R&D Manager at our R&D center in Wageningen. But what is the story behind this?

Back in the days

Currently I am part of the Specialized Nutrition team, located in Wageningen in the Netherlands. But my first experience with FrieslandCampina already started during my childhood. I am originally from Maluku, a beautiful island located in the eastern part of Indonesia. My mum used to buy the ‘Susu Bandera’ drink every week for me and my brother. Only in my adulthood I did realize that FrieslandCampina is the company that provides that product.

From there on, I made it my mission to provide nutritious and affordable products to our consumers around the world

And so it started: upon finishing my study in Indonesia, I applied for an opportunity to study in Netherlands and was granted a scholarship. While the Dutch culture was new to me, it only took me few weeks to adapt and started to be comfortable with it.  But I do have to admit, eating boterham (sandwich in Dutch) for lunch will always be a no-no.

The role continued when I joined Specialized Nutrition team and eventually, I shifted to Project Manager. It has been amazing to work with talented and dedicated people bringing the best infant nutrition to our little consumers. These are the team who find it imperative that we create a safe and high-quality product, realizing that what we make can be possibly the only source of nutrition our consumers take on in their early life. It is also in this role as project manager that I came to realize the privilege of growing team and own self, which drives me to find opportunity in leadership role.

Upbringing experience helps me tremendously to adjust to changes. I believe I am resilient by nature because of that

I personally value accountability, adaptability, resilience, and end goal in mind very much and take this with me in my professional life. Where my personal key drivers come from? As a child, I was acquainted with moving from one place to the other in the eastern part of the country due to my father`s occupation as a weather forecaster. The move was frequent, pretty much every year until I turned 15 years old. This meant a different school, different language and dialect, new friends, new environment. No chance to process all that changes really; I went along with it. But what kept me going was that I got the chance to experience the new. Growing up, I realize it shapes and equip me to deal with changes: always keep the end goal in mind and adapt swiftly.

Coming from a country that is rich of cultures and differences, I value diversity and inclusion. A value that I see embraced by our company. If you ever visit us in the Wageningen Innovation Center, you will notice how diverse the teams are. I am very proud to see our team achievement and multidisciplinary collaboration to make it a success. Within R&D Specialized Nutrition team alone, we have about 16 nationalities.

Diversity is not sufficient without inclusion. I value the openness within our team in sharing each other different perspectives – it is enriching and reflecting. I believe that when we all have a shared goal and commitment in all layers of the organization, we can get through adversities and win.