From 1982 till 1988, Ron Hovenier studied animal genetics at the Agricultural University in WAGENINGEN, with specialization in dairy cattle and poultry breeding. From 1988 till 1992, he worked at the Wageningen Agricultural University where he did his PhD-thesis entitled “Meat Quality in Pig Breeding Programs”. From 1992 till 1997, he was responsible for the genetic program of Raggio di Sole, a local feed and pig breeding company in FIORENZUOLA d’ARDA (PC), Italy. In 1997, he returned to the Netherlands and started to work for PIC Benelux as Technical Manager, from 2000 till 2012 as Technical Marketing Manager for PIC Europe. His main responsibilities were training and technical support to the European companies, agents, and key accounts, product development and product performance testing, and giving input from the European markets into Global Genetic Development and R&D teams.
Since April 2013, he is working as Breeding Program Manager for Topigs Norsvin. His main responsibilities are first and second line genetic support to customers and sales teams in Italy, Switzerland, UK, Russia, and in North and South America. Furthermore, he is involved in developing and maintaining product documentation and training material, and organizing technical seminars
