About

John Poppelaars has founded Doing The Math to realise his ambition to support organisations in becoming more sustainable. John is a passionate proponent of the use of data and mathematics as a key business enabler. Throughout his career, he has applied the business maxim of ‘fact-based improvement of decision making’ to numerous projects across many industries. John was awarded the Franz Edelman Award for this work at TNT Express, which resulted in substantial financial savings and CO₂ emission reduction. Next to his work for Doing The Math, John teaches at JADS and the AOG business school and is a member of the innovation board of the Dutch Platform for Mathematics.

Prior to founding his company, John was employed at BearingPoint and ORTEC. John earned a Master’s degree in Econometrics (1990) from the Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands and is INFORMS Certified Analytics Professional.

Robert Schwarz develops software tools that empower decision makers to answer their own questions. He prioritises finding the right solution approach and a high-quality implementation, and explaining how the methods work and where their limitations lie. He enjoys engaging with the open-source community and keeping up with the latest research papers.

Robert studied mathematics in Heidelberg and did research at the Zuse Institute Berlin, working on optimisation problems for gas network operation and expansion planning. He later managed development of a web-based platform for next-generation modelling and applications at LITIC.

Bernard Zweers has experience with using analytical methods to solve business challenges in both healthcare and supply chain applications. He believes that the mathematical model should capture all the complexity of business problems, but that the solution should always be computed in such a way that it is understandable for everyone.
Bernard holds a PhD degree in mathematics from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. In his PhD research, he developed mathematical models and algorithms to optimise inland container transportation.

Felix Hennings is driven by the urge to understand complex systems and processes, which enables him to find specialized solution strategies for a given problem or uncover potential for improvement. He is experienced in creating decision-support systems for industrial problems, knows the relevance of clean and accessible data for a successful project, and believes in the benefit of a high-quality and well-documented implementation that ensures long-term maintainability.

Felix studied Business Mathematics at the Technische Universität Berlin. Afterward, he worked at the Zuse Institute Berlin on optimizing the operation of large real-world gas transport networks, which is also the research topic of his PhD degree.

Iris Scheer is currently in her second year of the master’s program in Aerospace Engineering at the Technical University of Delft. During her studies, she developed an interest in solving problems using data, driven by the mathematical complexity and the puzzles presented by programming. Her aim is to assist various industries in becoming more sustainable, which is why she chose the Sustainable Air Transport specialization within her master’s program. While Iris has always been fascinated by the aviation industry, she is interested in applying her knowledge and gaining practical experience in addressing sustainability issues beyond the aviation sector.

Lars van der Meer is currently in his third year of the Bachelor of Econometrics and Operations Research at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. He is particularly drawn toward the operations research side and is eager to find meaningful applications of his knowledge, such as in the field of sustainability.

Carlijn Smeets is currently doing an Analytics and Operations Research in Logistics master at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. She is particularly interested in optimization and the development of quantitative solution procedures. She views modeling reality as a big puzzle that can have great impact on all kind of fields. Moreover, she has some research experience with forecasting models and has been teaching several bachelor courses. At Doing the Math, she is excited to bring her knowledge into practice, where sustainability is a main focus point.