HERA bundles the health economics expertise of many researchers at the School of Business and Economics (SBE), providing a platform for discussion and collaboration across sections of our faculty.
Researchers affiliated with HERA have expertise in global and public health economics, health economics of the Dutch care system and health management of hospitals and other care organizations.
Nursena Aksünger
Nursena Aksünger is a PhD candidate at the Department of Economics of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her project aims to understand how poverty and mental health are interlinked. In addition, she is a part-time researcher at PharmAccess Foundation with a focus on maternal care.
Yvonne Krabbe Alkemade
Yvonne Krabbe-Alkemade is a researcher at the department of Ethics, Governance and Society. She holds a PhD in economics of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (2014).
Fatima Amankour
Fatima Amankour is a junior lecturer Health Economics at the department of Ethics Governance and Society of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Aylin Aydinli
Aylin Aydinli is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Before joining Vrije Universiteit, Dr. Aydinli earned her PhD in marketing at London Business School and gained professional experience in lobbying at the U.S. Capitol Hill and strategic marketing at BMW. She served as a visiting scholar at Columbia Business School and was a member of its Research in Emotion and Decision Lab. Aylin is Program Director for MSc Marketing at VU Amsterdam. She has also co-chaired EACR Amsterdam 2023 conference.
Agnes Bäker
Dr. Agnes Bäker is Associate Professor of Leadership at the department of Management and Organization at VU Amsterdam. Before joining the VU Amsterdam, she worked as Assistant Professor at the University of Zurich (Switzerland, 2016-2021) and was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tübingen (Germany, 2010-2015). From 2011 to 2014, Agnes headed the Young Researchers Group on 'the role of human and social capital in the higher education career system' sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. She holds a PhD in Business Economics from the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen (2010).
Shiko Ben-Menahem
Shiko M. Ben-Menahem is Associate Professor of Technology and Innovation Management at the Organization Theory group of the Management & Organization Department, School of Business and Economics, VU Amsterdam. Before joining VU Amsterdam, Shiko was a habilitated Senior Lecturer at the Chair of Strategic Management and Innovation, ETH Zurich, and Adjunct Associate Professor at NYU Stern School of Business, Department of Technology, Operations, and Statistics. His research on innovation processes and strategy in industries encompassing healthcare, medical devices, and life sciences has appeared in numerous academic journals. Shiko serves on the Editorial Review Board of Academy of Management Discoveries, was a Special Issue Editor for Research Policy, and is a former Associate Editor and current Editorial Review Board member of European Management Journal.
Rob Boterenbrood
Rob Boterenbrood is lecturer at the department of Accounting of the Vrije Universiteit.
Tjerk Budding
Tjerk Budding is a professor at the School of Business and Economics. He serves as the executive director (opleidingsdirecteur) of postgraduate programs in Public Sector Financial Management, which includes the two-year program Certified Public Controller, Associate professor Public Sector Accounting
Elco van Burg
Elco van Burg is full professor of Organizational Theory and Head of Organizational Theory Section at the School of Business and Economics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He holds a PhD from Eindhoven University of Technology in entrepreneurship, as well as an MSc. Degree (cum laude) in Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences from the same university and an M.A. degree (cum laude) in Theology from Utrecht University. After several academic positions at both Eindhoven University of Technology and VU Amsterdam, Elco has been working in a social enterprise in the rural highlands of Papua (Indonesia) for a period of six years, where he is still involved.
Marcel Canoy
Marcel Canoy is endowed professor in Health Economics at the department of Ethics, Governance and Society of the School of Business and Economics of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Ancillary activities include membership on the Healthcare Package Advisory Committee at Zorginstituut Nederland, an advisory role for the Consumer and Market Authority (ACM), columnist for Zorgvisie/Sociale vraagstukken.nl, and advisor for Vilans.
Hilco van Elten
Hilco van Elten is associate professor at the department of Accounting of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He holds a PhD from the Nyenrode Business University (2012).
Ruud Frambach
Ruud Frambach is Professor of Marketing at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam since 2000. He holds a PhD in Marketing from Tilburg University. Before joining the Vrije Universiteit, he was affiliated with Tilburg University and Ghent University (Belgium).
Titus Galama
Titus Galama, Director of the Center for the Study of Health Inequality (CSHI), Lead (jointly with von Hinke) of the European Social Science Genetics Network (ESSGN), Associate Professor of Economics at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and Senior Economist at the Center for Economic and Social Research, University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, is an award-winning astrophysicist who turned to business and management, then to policy analysis and economics. In economics, he focuses on understanding the substantial disparities in health by socioeconomic status, utilizing economic principles. Recently he has turned his attention to integrating genetics into such studies.
Selin Göksel
Selin is assistant professor at the department of Marketing of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Selin has a background is in Economics in which she holds B.A. from Boğaziçi University in Turkey and a M.Sc. degree from Toulouse School of Economics in France. She holds a PhD in Marketing from the London Business School (2022).
Eric van der Hijden
Eric van der Hijden is a researcher at the department of Ethics, Governance and Society. Additionally, he holds the position of Manager of the Strategic Department at the health insurer Zilveren Kruis.
Ismail Ismail
Ismail Ismail is a PhD candidate at the department of Ethics, Governance and Society of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Wendy Janssens
Wendy Janssens is Professor in Development Economics. She is Academic Board member of the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development (AIGHD), in the HERA management team (Health Economics Research Amsterdam), and research fellow at the Tinbergen Institute. She is also research advisor for PharmAccess Foundation. Previously, she held visiting positions at the Institute of Fiscal Studies in London, and the World Bank Development Economics Research group in Washington, DC.
Svetlana Khapova
Prof. dr. Svetlana Khapova is Full Professor of Organisational Behaviour & Leadership at the School of Business and Economics (SBE) of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She is Head of Department - Management & Organisation, and Programme Director of the (Executive) PhD programme in management and business studies at the School of Business and Economics (SBE) of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Between 2009-2017, she served as Director of Doctoral Education and a founding Director of Amsterdam Business Research Institute (ABRI) of the School of Business and Economics (SBE), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Mirella Kleijnen
Mirella Kleijnen is Professor of Customer Experience Management at the Marketing Department of the School of Business and Economics (SBE), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She also serves as a Vice Dean of Education on the Board of SBE and as of January 1, 2023 she has taken up the role of Co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of Business Research. She obtained her PhD from the School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University.
Berend van der Kolk
Berend van der Kolk (1986) works as an associate professor at the Accounting department of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He holds degrees in accounting, philosophy and business administration, and obtained his PhD on management accounting in 2016 from the University of Groningen. After that, he worked at IE Business School in Madrid for five years as an assistant professor. Also, he held visiting positions at the University of Sydney and the London School of Economics.
Pierre Koning
Pierre Koning (1971) is full professor "Economics of social insurance and the Labor Market" at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam. Until December 2015, Pierre was employed as a Chief Science Officer at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment in the Netherlands. Pierre obtained his PhD at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam – with his thesis focusing on job search models for the labor market. His special interest lies in the field of welfare-to-work services and disability insurance – here most of his international publications are also focused on. Pierre also is affiliated with IZA and Tinbergen Institute. Pierre's chair is partly sponsored by Instituut Gak.
Xander Koolman
Xander Koolman is full professor Health Economics and chairs the Health Economics section at the department of Ethics, Governance and Society, School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His research interests are institutional economics and applied health econometrics/biostatistics. In his work he is keen to combine both in quantitative research and health economic policy.
Ingmar Leijen
Ingmar Leijen (1969) started his career studying classical piano and subsequently Arts Management. He is working as Lecturer Marketing at the VU Amsterdam since 2008. From 2000 to 2008 he was, next to his career as professional musician, lecturer Arts Marketing at the University of Utrecht as well as the Conservatory of Utrecht. Currently Ingmar is pursuing a PhD doing research in the domain of cross cultural differences, human values, healthcare and marketing.
Maarten Lindeboom
Maarten Lindeboom (PhD Leiden University) is a professor of Economics and head of the department of economics. He is currently editor of the Journal of Health Economics and held longer term visiting position at the University of Michigan (Netherlands visiting Professorship, The Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences) and the University of Bristol (Benjamin Meaker Chair). He is also a crown appointed member of the Socio-Economic Council of the Netherlands and member of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities.
Simon J.L.M. Loop
Simon Loop is a PhD candidate at the department of Ethics, Governance and Society of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Kobe Millet
Kobe Millet is Professor of Decision Making & Sustainability in Marketing. He has a Master’s degree in Psychology and obtained his PhD in Marketing, both from the KULeuven, Belgium. After his PhD he obtained a post-doctoral fellowship (2007-2010) of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) before starting at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (2010).
Gabriela Estefania Morejón Cabrera
Gabriela is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the department of Ethics, Governance and Society.
Christine Moser
Christine Moser is an Associate Professor of Organization Theory at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her research is on corporate social responsibility (CSR), knowledge flows in social networks, and the role of technology in social interaction. Her work has been published in numerous journals. She is an incoming Associate Editor for 'Academy of Management Learning and Education' and editorial board member of 'Organization Studies, Innovation: Organization & Management and Organization Theory', and has co-edited a volume of 'Research in the Sociology of Organizations'. In addition, she coordinated the organizing team for the EGOS Colloquium in 2021 which was hosted by VU Amsterdam. In 2020, she joined the Executive Committee of the Organization & Management Theory (OMT) division of the Academy of Management as social media co-chair, and in July 2022 she became the vice-chair of the European Group of Organizational Studies (EGOS).
Samantha van Os
Samantha van Os is an (executive) PhD candidate at the School of Business & Economics. Her research project focuses on the role of middle management in strategic change processes, with Dutch residential mental health care as research context. She works as an interim change management project leader. Besides this, she is a managing board member of a foundation that works with teenagers with the aim to contribute to improvement of youth policies.
Marina Aguiar Palma
Marina is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a Research Fellow at FGV-Rio. Her research focuses on Health Economics, Early Childhood Development, and Development Economics, with papers utilizing both reduced-form and structural models. She holds a PhD in Economics from PUC-Rio, along with an MSc and BSc degree from the University of Nottingham. She also served as an Overseas Development Institute Fellow in Eswatini.
Anna Plotnikova
Dr. Anna Plotnikova is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Change at VU University Amsterdam, School of Business and Economics. Anna has obtained her PhD at Leeds University Business School and holds Master Degree in Business Administration from the Radboud University. Prior starting her Master Anna worked for three years in the HR consulting company in St.Petersburg (Russia). Also, throughout her PhD Anna had a close collaboration with strategy practitioners in large telecommunication company (part of EU Horizon 2020 research programme) that provided her with experience of strategy-making processes in multinational organisations.
France R.M. Portrait
Dr. F.R.M. Portrait obtained her PhD in econometrics from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in October 2000. She also completed a doctoral programme in economics in September 2000 at the Tinbergen Institute. Afterwards, she became a postdoc at the faculty of Economics of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. From April 2000 to December 2003, she did a second postdoc at the department of Economics and at LASA (Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam, VU Amsterdam). She became an assistant professor at the department of Health Sciences of the VU Amsterdam in January 2004 (until January 2014) and obtained her VU Amsterdam Teaching certificate in July 2005. She is currently working as an associate professor at the School of Business and Economics.
Menno Pradhan
Menno Pradhan (PhD Tilburg University) is professor in Project and Program Evaluation for International Development at the VU and UvA Economics departments since 2007. Prior to this he worked at the World Bank office in Indonesia (7 years) and Washington (2 years), at the VU (7 years) and Cornell University (1 year). He is also a co-academic director of the Amsterdam Institute for International Development and a fellow at the Tinbergen Institute.
Rebecca Ruehle
Rebecca C. Ruehle joined the Vrije Universiteit as an Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) of Business Ethics at the beginning of 2020. Within her research she focuses on the ethics of nudging and critically assesses arguments in favour and against the use of nudges in the corporate sphere. Rebecca completed the doctoral program “Ethics and Responsible Leadership in Business” in 2019 and received her PhD from the University of Halle-Wittenberg in 2020. From October 2019 until December 2019 she was a visiting scholar at Tilburg University, Netherlands. Furthermore, she was employed as a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Mannheim and a research assistant at the University of Halle-Wittenberg with the task to create and design an online course on behavioural business ethics. Between 2009 and 2015 Rebecca also worked for IBM with overseas assignments in the USA and China. In her main function Rebecca supported the IBM Corporate Citizenship department in Germany. From 2016 to 2019 Rebecca was on the managing committee of the association sneep e.V., which is the largest German-speaking student network for ethics in economics and practise with over 500 active members in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. From 2018 to 2019 she served as the director of the committee.
Vera van Schie
Vera van Schie is a PhD candidate at the departement of Ethics, Governance and Society of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Chantal Schouwenaar
Chantal Schouwenaar is a PhD candidate at the department of Ethics Governance and Society of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Piet Stam
Piet Stam is a Research Associate at the School of Business and Economics (SBE).
Wouter van Straaten
Wouter van Straaten is a PhD Candidate at the department of Ethics, Governance and Society of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Eva Velthuijs
Eva Velthuijs is a physician-scientist at both Amsterdam UMC and the department of Ethics Governance and Society of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Vera de Weerdt
Vera de Weerdt is PhD candidate at the department of Ethics, Governance and Society of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Lia van Wesenbeeck
Lia van Wesenbeeck is an Associate Professor at the School of Business of Economics. She is also director of the Amsterdam Centre for World Food Studies and hence responsible for the management and coordination of the day-to-day activities of the Centre. She also is senior lecturer at Amsterdam University College. Before, she was a senior researcher at the SOW-VU and obtained her PhD in 2000 at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She publishes in peer reviewed journals and books, provides advice to policy makers, gives guest lectures at several Dutch Universities, co-supervises a PhD student and serves on various national and international committees in the area of FNS.
