Rik has been serving as the Director of ISRIC - World Soil Information since September 2014.

Rik has 25 years of experience in applied research focusing on soil fertility, soil and water conservation, and the environmental impact of agrochemicals in Africa and Asia. His professional drive is to contribute to the sustainable management of natural resources, especially in low and middle-income countries.

Throughout his career, Rik has gained experience collaborating with research groups, stakeholders, NGOs, and the public and private sectors. In his capacity as the leader of the Environmental Risk Assessment team, successfully established a collaboration between Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. This collaboration led to the development of environmental risk assessment procedures in the Chinese pesticide registration system. Based on this accomplishment, similar initiatives were set up with various national governments in East Africa. This collaboration led to the development of environmental risk assessment procedures in the Chinese pesticide registration system. As a result of this achievement, similar initiatives were set up with various national governments in East Africa. Serving as the business unit manager of the Centre for Water and Climate, Rik contributed to further developing WUR's applied climate and water research. He also served as a board member of the Climate KIC Foundation—a pan-European network dedicated to climate innovations. In this capacity, he helped WUR's researchers collaborate with major corporations in Europe on innovative projects.