About Cultivators

Sonny Moerenhout

Sonny has been consulting growers for years on cannabis cultivation in countries where medicinal cannabis is legalized. His cultivation experience and expertise is strengthened as result of his involvement in trials at Wageningen University.

Not surprisingly, Sonny holds a master’s degree in plant science from Wageningen University with greenhouse horticulture as his specialization. He understands the importance of working together with the pharmaceutical, horticultural & hobby industry in the cannabis sector. Through his experience in his extensive network he learnt that cultivation expertise is a crucial factor to make growing facilities a success.

Pim Molenaars

Pim was responsible for the cannabis business within one of the leading corporate companies in the ancillary industry. Over the years, he has seen the industry evolve from small scale, ‘underground’ operations to high tech growing facilities which comply to medicinal standards.

Nowadays, the cannabis industry faces challenges such as legal compliance, medicinal quality standards (GMP and GACP), finding skilled people, and obtaining cultivation knowledge. Pim has been dealing with these challenges and readied the internal organization to serve the global cannabis market. While doing this, he has become a true cannabis professional in the industry with a strong network.

Tim van Hissenhoven

Born and raised near the city of Mechelen, in Belgium’s main greenhouse vegetable‑growing area. As the son of a tomato and lettuce grower he literally grew up between the plants in a greenhouse. That’s where his passion for plants and greenhouse growing originates.

Specialized in hydroponic growing of leafy vegetables and herbs in open field, greenhouses or closed environments, and plant propagation. Currently consulting and supporting projects all over the world in different climate zones (like Japan, India, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and North America).

Richard Kooijman

Richard has been working in commercial horticulture for over 20 years since graduating with a Masters in Horticulture in 1997. He is a very experienced tomato grower with exceptional knowledge of pests, diseases and their control, plant nutrition and fertigation strategies.

He has both BASIS and FACTS (UK) qualifications and is a DAFM approved Pesticide Advisor (Ireland). Richard has been consulting both cannabis and tomato growers in recent years, and enjoys coaching growing teams to help them reach their fullest potential. Nowadays Richard works as a senior consultant for Cannabis Cultivators.

John Dol

John has been running cannabis and vegetable farms for years. He developed facilities from the technical drawing board to successful growing operations in the USA. John started over 25 years ago in the horticulture sector and moved from technical maintenance manager to Director of Operations.

John has designed multiple indoor and greenhouse cannabis facilities for leading companies in North America. As VP of Cultivation he managed up to 12 grow facilities over 10 different states. John’s expertise will help you develop strategies and facilities to drive success for the future by improving efficiency, increasing yield and driving down cost today.

Brady Green

Brady was the head grower and vice-president of cultivation for one of Canada’s largest cannabis companies. Brady has designed several state of the art GMP cannabis facilities from the ground up and has consulted on multiple other greenhouse, indoor facilities and outdoor production around the globe.

His growing style ranges from small scale organic to highly technical hydroponic, always maintaining a high-quality product. Brady’s expertise will help you design a facility and implement processes to maximize efficiency and create a high-end product.

Natalia Lopez

Natalia spent several years refining her expertise as a cannabis cultivator in the recreational market in California before relocating to Portugal and working as head grower for Holigen/RPK Biopharama, one of the first GMP-certified medical cannabis facilities in the country.

Since then she has consulted for various medical cannabis projects in Europe and beyond. Her scientific academic background has moulded her consulting approach into one that is data-driven and based on sound evidence and observation. Her tailored solutions prioritise scalability by focusing on production that is balanced between cost optimisation and uncompromising quality.

Rens Michielsen

Rens has developed and implemented compliance protocols for suppliers in the cannabis industry. He worked for one of the global suppliers of consumables in the cannabis industry. As a result he has strong understanding of the legal requirements of being active in the cannabis industry.

The cannabis industry has specific challenges since the complexity of the regulatory landscape and the undergoing rapid developments of legalization.Rens brings compliance protocols in place for both growers and suppliers, your customers, your staff and other stakeholders in order to enable compliant services. Rens’ his success relies on his expert knowledge, legal background and expertise the cannabis industry.

Tom Moerenhout

Tom is a highly experienced eggplant grower and was running his own greenhouse company in the Netherlands till end of 2018. After he sold his company he got frequently asked for advise because of his 35 years of growing experience. Today he is consulting growers with daily operations such as climate control, crop maintenance, nutrition and other cultivation topics. He is specialized in eggplants (aubergines) and has also been growing tomato and cucumbers.

Mexx Holweg

Mexx was brought up in Angerlo, a village in the Achterhoek, Gelderland. He obtained a BSc in Applied Plant Research and a MSc Plant Sciences (specialization Greenhouse Horticulture) at Wageningen University & Research, during which he researched the effect of light intensity and blue light on medicinal cannabis.

For many years Mexx believed in the pharmaceutical potential of cannabis, and hopes to fulfill his social-role by contributing to the industry’s development. His focus is on the propagation of medicinal cannabis and other cultivation projects. Currently Mexx is PhD researcher – Crop Physiology of Medicinal Cannabis at Wageningen University & research.

Ruud Schoenmakers

Ruud Schoenmakers is born and raised in the greenhouse of his father in the village of Dongen. After his horticultural study at HAS university off Applied Sciences he worked in several countries on multiple crops. Varying from tomatoes, strawberries, lettuce / herbs to potted plants.

Ruud is part of Cultivators as a cultivation consultant in the hydroponic lettuce, leafy greens and herbs team. His focus will be on growing support and starting up new facilities (commissioning). With the experience of Ruud we have valuable expertise on board combined with absolute hands-on growing experience and mentality.

Kjell Sneeuw

Kjell is originally from Amsterdam, but moved to Wageningen to study plant sciences. There, he has obtained a BSc degree in Plant sciences and finalized his MSc degree in Plant sciences with a specialization in Greenhouse Horticulture. Kjell has successfully completed a MSc thesis focusing on the effects of light intensity and far-red radiation on the growth and development of cannabis.

Kjell is eager to further develop his cannabis-growing knowledge and skills at Cultivators. During his internship he conducted a practical experiment regarding vegetative propagation with a licensed producer in France. He started as a cultivation consultant that combines an expertise in light spectrum effects with hands-on experience.

Nicole Kuleshova

Nicole is originally from Israel. She moved to the Netherlands right after graduating high school and started her BSc degree at the HAS University of Applied Sciences in Den Bosch. There she is studying Horticulture and Business Management, specializing in Cultivation and Technology, and is expected to graduate in 2023.

Nicole started in the company as a research intern, and will continue her journey together with the Cultivators! She is very enthusiastic and keen to further develop her skills and knowledge in the international licensed cannabis industry.

Vincent Kickert

From an early age, Vincent has had interests in engineering and constructive technologies. With an initial study of aerospace engineering, the lack of creativity allowed made him change to Industrial Design Engineering. After which he accidently rolled into our industry at Enerdes, designing the climate systems marketed by KUBO as Ultra Clima. In the next decade he worked on a various range of greenhouses, crops and, more importantly, climates across the globe. His passion for designing and developing remained and resulted in multiple new systems patented and build.

With the vision that a stronger market benefits all and the market for horticultural projects is far from saturated, spreading knowledge and support became more important. He is now a climate consultant and no longer working in R&D test chambers. Optimizing the sustainability and efficiency of your climate systems while fresh and healthy products leave the site, are the on-going challenge he enjoys helping with.