Wouter Bruins, co-founder of Leiden-based In Ovo, steps down; announces Anouk ter Laak as new CEO

Wouter Bruins, co-founder of In Ovo, announced his decision to step down from his role, which he co-founded 13 years ago alongside Wil Stutterheim.

“When we, as students, started In Ovo, there was no technology, no market, and no funding. Leiden University provided us with early support, seeing the value of our mission to end chick culling,” says Bruins in a LinkedIn post.

As the Dutch company moves forward, Bruins announced that Anouk ter Laak will take over as CEO, while Judith Batchelar OBE will serve as the new chair of the board. However, Bruins will remain engaged as a shareholder in the company.

Anouk ter Laak has 30 years of experience in commercial and CEO roles with food consumer brands (FMCG), agro products, and both B2C and B2B in national and international markets.

Judith Batchelar OBE was the Director of Food Matters International Ltd, a position she has held since December 2021. Before this, she spent 17 years at Sainsbury’s, where she served as a Special Advisor and Director of Sainsbury’s Brand. 

“I will miss working day to day with the team, especially Tiemen and Wil, and I wish them all the best,” Bruins says.

The announcement comes around one year after the company raised €40M in loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

In Ovo: What you need to know

Wouter Bruins and Wil Stutterheim founded In Ovo in 2018 as a spin-off from Leiden University with one goal – to prevent the killing of day-old chicks. 

Every year, around 6.5B male chicks are killed in the poultry industry. Right after hatching, chicks are manually sorted by gender, and the male chicks are killed.

In an attempt to prevent it, In Ovo has developed a high-throughput screening machine called Ella, which can identify the gender of eggs before they hatch. 

It enables hatcheries to only hatch females, eliminating the need for culling the males on an economic and industrial scale. 

After a decade of development, Ovo’s Ella machine produced the first ‘cull-free chicks’ in Q4, 2020. Ella marks a huge step forward in animal welfare and the sustainability of the poultry industry claims the company.