Nils van der Plas

Nils C. van der Plas is an Executive Advisor to NEOM Water and sits on the Advisor Board of Chemelco. He studied electronics at the Polytechnic Faculty of Higher Technology and Business Administration in The Netherlands. After his military service in the Dutch army, Nils started his professional career in 1987 as a Sales Engineer at Cyklop, Industrial packaging Industry. In 1989 he joined Akzo, growing into an extensive career over 32 years serving AkzoNobel, Nouryon in different capacities in The Netherlands, the USA, in Coatings -and Chemicals markets on site and at corporate. During this period, he gained exceptional experience in the field of coatings, technical services and procurement, as well as in the global chlor-alkali industry, chlorine derivatives and downstream applications, and end-markets.  

From August 2013 to February 2021, Nils managed the AkzoNobel/Nouryon salt businesses with mining and manufacturing facilities in The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Spain, serving the chemical transformation, de-icing and salt specialties markets. During this period, he was also on the Board of EU Salt in Brussels. From February 2021 to February 2022, he served as a Non-Executive Board Member of CorreEnergy. 

Throughout these years, Nils has developed a through passion for sustainability and the energy transition, aligning the interest of “people, planet, profit/prosperity”.