Almere, 7 September 2011 – In today’s meeting of the Supervisory Board of Foundation AAP , current chairman Theo Strengers will hand over his function to Leen Zevenbergen . During the eight years that Theo Strengers has been chairman at AAP, many successes have been achieved. Thus found 28 infected chimpanzees from the laboratory animal center BPRC in Rijswijk a permanent home in the specially built chimpanzee complex. And in Spain, after many years of difficult negotiations, Primadomus got opened as the first foreign branch of AAP. Now Foundation AAP is standing in front of some big challenges again. “A great time to transfer the baton”, according to Theo Strengers.

With the appointment of Leen Zevenbergen, AAP expects to have found the right man for the challenges AAP is facing. Leen Zevenbergen, currently CEO of Qurius N.V., has been in various executive and management functions at various international companies. This experience fits well with the desire of AAP to further shape their goal at international level and to further extend AAP to an (international) knowledge organization.

"We are excited about the arrival of Leen Zevenbergen" says David van Gennep, managing director of Foundation AAP. "His experience fits perfectly with the future aspirations of AAP. In addition, Leen is a strong supporter of sustainability, something AAP has also been working on for years. We naturally thank Theo Strengers for his hard work and commitment. He has selflessly applied himself for years and has been of great significance to AAP in Almere, but also for Primadomus. He has delivered a major contribution to get where AAP currently finds itself."

"I’ve been admiring AAP for years," says Leen Zevenbergen. "It is an organization that tackles the problems around exotic animals at all levels. In the direct harborage and in lobbying for a legislation in Europe to prevent animals ending up in bad situations. AAP is intelligent and very honest. I met the people of AAP. That feels very good. It is an honor to selflessly use my experience and network for AAP."