Willem studied aircraft technology at the HTS in Haarlem. He started working at several companies who design and manufacture process equipment in the role as business unit manager and technical manager.

Starting in 2005, Willem worked as an engineering project manager for upstream and downstream processes at Janssen Biologics (Centocor at that time). In this role he was involved with the Tech Transfer of a new cell line, where he introduced CO2 incubators up till TFF skids (downstream process). He continued his career as manager validation department at Janssen Biologics, responsible for 19 FTE. In this role he initiated several lean six sigma improvement projects. Three years later he became manager validation and calibration and participated in several OPEX projects at Teva Haarlem.