Rob Meulenbroek

Get to know your colleagues a little bit better. Our “3 questions for…” travels around the globe from one colleague to another. Every colleague will answer the same questions.

Tell us about your work environment. What does it look like? And what are your responsibilities at Royal Smit & Zoon?

I work in Amersfoort at the Leather Testing Services department. There, we test pieces of leather made by ATW colleagues, leather technicians or leather coming from customers worldwide. We check whether the leather meets the requirements set by customers like tear load, water resistance, heat yellowing, climate change and lightfastness. But the test results also help our R&D department to develop new products.

Royal Smit & Zoon is driven by a purpose. To make the leather value chain environmentally & socially sustainable. What is your purpose? What gives you energy in your job?

To support our customers/ technicians in development of new leather articles or existing ones and help them with specific requests regarding leather testing.

Rob Meulenbroek
Senior Analyst Leather Properties

At Royal Smit & Zoon, we love leather. What is your favorite leather item?

In fact I have two favorite leather items. Some of you know that photography is one of my hobbies. I like the retro look of my Fuji camera. And retro does not match with synthetics, so I have a leather strap for my camera. And the other hobby is Brazilian Percussion. The  Maracatu drum is also known as Alfaia. The instrument is played by Maracatu groups in Pernambuco, in the north of Brazil. The alfaia is a wooden drum and the drumhead is made of goat or cow skin. Playing these drums requires a special drumming technique, which makes playing very intense. We played these drums during our performances at the International Samba Festival 2019 and 2022 in Coburg, Germany.

Who are you going to pass the baton to?

To my colleague Beatrice Pagan de Paganis.

Back to globe stories