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).

Kjell Sneeuw

Kjell holds a BSc and MSc in Plant sciences with a specialization in Greenhouse Horticulture from Wageningen University. Kjell’s research focused on the effects of light intensity and spectrum on the growth and development of medical cannabis.

As a cannabis cultivation consultant, Kjell is involved in multiple growing and research projects. Kjell oversees the daily operations at the “Cultivation for Compounds” consortium on behalf of Cultivators. Kjell is also one of the main teachers of the “Operational Excellence Training” project, hosting both lectures and practical sessions on the cultivation of medical cannabis. He can also be found advising growers around Europe.

Nicole Kuleshova

Nicole is originally from Israel. She completed her BSc at the HAS University of Applied Sciences in Den Bosch, the Netherlands. Graduated in 2023, Nicole studied Horticulture and Business Management. She specialized in Cultivation and Technology, where she gained both theoretical knowledge and practical experience with high-tech cultivation of tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, cannabis, and more.

Nicole started in the company as a research intern during her study, and since then she has been part of our team. Now she is leading Cultivators’ marketing and is involved with project management. She is very enthusiastic and keen to further develop her skills and knowledge in the internationally licensed cannabis industry among others.

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 the horticultural industry, designing the climate systems of a well known (semi-closed) greenhouse builder. 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.

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.

Willem van Dijk

Willem grew up in Vleuten in the middle of the Netherlands. With family in agriculture and horticulture it is logical that Willem has been working in the horticulture for over 35 years. He is a very experienced tomato / cucumber grower and specialized in artificial light since 2006. He was also running his own greenhouse company in the south of the Netherlands for a couple of years.

Willem is involved in employee training and organization of labor in projects globally together with other colleagues. Currently consulting and supporting projects all over the world in different climate zones (like Japan-Vietnam-Mexico-Spain-Austria- Germany-Czech-England-Finland).

Hang Hoang

Hằng is from Vietnam. Prior to joining Cultivators, she has 10 years of working experience in supply chain and project management for L’Oréal and Glaxo Smith Kline. Over this period, Hang has expanded her understanding of numerous business cases across a range of sales channels, including retail, general & modern trade, hospitals, and pharmacies. While pursuing her full-time degree in Horticulture and Business Management, Hang joined the team of Cultivators part-time and is involved in projects’ support, financial overviews, and marketing assistance