Stefan Ligtenberg, PhD

Dr. Stefan Ligtenberg is the managing director of Weather Impact.

Stefan graduated in 2009 at Wageningen University in Meteorology and Air Quality. He finished his PhD in 2014 on the field of polar meteorology at Utrecht University. Subsequently he started two postdoctoral positions at Utrecht University, for the last he received an NWO VENI scholarship.

At Weather Impact, Stefan started as consultant and project leader. Since 2018 he gained a lot of experience in project management, he collaborates with different stakeholders and is an expert in translating meteorological weather parameters in messages that fit the local context of a farmer.

Bob Ammerlaan, MSc

Bob Ammerlaan MSc. works at Weather Impact as consultant.

Bob has a background in Physics and Meteorology and graduated in 2018 at Utrecht University in Meteorology, Physical Oceanography and Climate.

At Weather Impact, Bob works as consultant meteorology and climate change. He is responsible for the operational services at Weather Impact. He has experience with weather forecasting in Southeast Asia and East Africa and is an expert in using agricultural and meteorological information to give the best advice to local farmers.

Janina Fraas, MSc

Janina holds a MSc Climate Studies degree at Wageningen University where she focused on meteorology and programming. She got to know Weather Impact already during her first year of the MSc studies where she worked on a university group project for Weather Impact. This project has inspired her so that she tailored her study program towards agro-meteorological climate services. Next to that, she brings an unique background because she holds a BSc degree in International Development Studies and took leading roles in several international student associations. At Weather Impact she works as consultant.

Glenn van Graafeiland, MSc

Glenn works at Weather Impact as consultant. Glenn finished his master Climate Studies at Wageningen University in 2022. Before he did a bachelor Earth Sciences in Utrecht, where he graduated on surface water contamination. During his masters he discovered meteorology and was fascinated by this discipline. He has a lot of experience with data analyses techniques and is eager to make an actual impact on the challenges we face due to climate change. For his internship with Weather Impact he was involved in the Rain in Africa project, for which he validated model output by means of observations by the Rwanda Meteorological Agency. In his current role as consultant he supports the team in several projects.

Paula Trakoštanec, MSc

Paula holds a MSc Organic Agriculture degree at Wageningen University where she specialized in agroecology and sustainable farming systems. She has practical experience from her internship where she worked on a regenerative agriculture farm in southern Spain, conducting biodiversity research, ecosystem restoration, and working on diverse agriculture techniques. She has been a part of International Association of Students in Agricultural and Related Sciences (IAAS) for five years, which is the biggest association in the world that gathers students with agricultural related fields of study. She gained networking experience and connections from a position in the IAAS World Board. At Weather Impact she works as a business developer.

Mónica Estébanez Camarena, MSc

Mónica holds a BSc in Aerospace Engineering (Technical University of Madrid, Spain), a MPhil in Space Studies (University of Cape Town, South Africa) and a MSc by Research in Space Navigation (University of Cranfield, the UK). Next to her Business Developer role at Weather Impact, she currently is finalizing her PhD in Water Management at the Delft University of Technology. Her research focuses on the modelling of West African rainfall through Earth Observation, Citizen Science and Deep Learning. During her PhD she acquired and led the Schools and Satellites project, that worked with schools and farmers in the north of Ghana to monitor daily rainfall. Her background has given her ample international and multidisciplinary experience, including working in diverse cultural and social environments. She is passionate about global collaboration and co-creation for an impact.

Lorenzo Occelli, MSc

Lorenzo finished his master Climate Physics at the University of Utrecht in 2023 and has a background in  Physics and operational forecasting algorithms. He is a real data expert, and has a strong interest in data modeling and coding. Lorenzo gained experience during his thesis project at Weather Impact, where he studies an algorithm to predict the start and intensity of the rain season in tropical areas. He works at Weather Impact as consultant.

Tamara Lancel

Tamara Lancel works at Weather Impact as Management Assistant and Marketing Coördinator.

She graduated in Hotel & Hospitalitymanagement in 2007 and has a background in the hospitality industry, organizing congresses and events. In her last job she worked as a training coordinator and arranged technical IT trainings for the Benelux and Africa region. Tamara is very strong in planning, coordinating and organizing, and has experience in broad administrative and logistic work. At Weather Impact she supports the management and the team in marketing, HR, finance, administration, acquisition and other organizational tasks, to share our expertise about smart weather solutions.

Susana Zarzoza Mora

Susana is currently completing her MSc in Environmental Sciences, specializing in Water Systems & Global Change (Wageningen University). Her background in Irrigation Engineering (Universidad Autonoma Chapingo, Mexico) and professional experience in the agricultural sector, gives her the needed knowledge to fullfill her internship at Weather Impact.

At Weather Impact, Susana is on a mission to contribute with improvements to the chatbot that provides vital weather information and agricultural advice to smallholder farmers. Her dedication to sustainable agriculture and interest in bridging the gap between farmers and critical agricultural information makes her a valuable addition to the team.

Gerrit Hiemstra, MSc

Gerrit is a meteorologist with in-depth experience in the meteorological field. He graduated in 1986 at Wageningen University as Agricultural Engineer, with a specialization in Agricultural Meteorology, followed by a 9-year period as operational weather forecaster in a commercial weather company.

After a brief period as head of the operational weather service at Schiphol Airport he founded the successful commercial weather company WeerOnline, which was sold in 2009.

Gerrit is also the well-known weather presenter of NOS, the national news organisation of the Netherlands, since 1998. In 2014 he founded Weather Impact.

Arnold Lobbrecht, PhD

Arnold graduated in 1986 from Delft University of Technology as Civil Engineer. He gained experience in hydrology, water management and informatics during a 12-years period at a multinational consultancy firm.

After 4 years of research he obtained in 1997 his PhD in operational water management. After that he became part-time professor of hydroinformatics at UNESCO-IHE in Delft, guiding a group of PhD researchers. In 2000 he established HydroLogic, a hydroinformatics company, working on water & ICT projects.

His experience is in decision support systems with focus on flood forecasting, water availability and droughts.
In 2014 he founded Weather Impact.