After completing a research master’s in Cardiovascular Biology and Medicine at Maastricht University, Kathinka left for Amsterdam to pursue doctoral research at Sanquin Blood Supply. She received her doctorate from the University of Amsterdam in 2014. She nonetheless preferred the dynamic world of pharmaceutical manufacturing, and she made a move to the production environment and started working at Sanquin Plasma Products as a quality officer. During this period she mainly worked on deviation management, change control, drawing up procedures and batch review. She gained in-depth familiarity with the GMP regulations for both the European and the US market (FDA). She also worked on process excellence (DMAIC, Lean six sigma) projects and she was also involved in setting up and optimising production lines. For multiple companies she was successfully setting up Pharmaceutical Quality Systems, preparing batch releases and analytical method validation. She currently is finishing her QP education.