Reinhard Willem Jacob Veersema (1922), engineer, head of design at Philips. Veersema came from a family of artists in Groningen, was educated as an architect at Delft University and subsequently worked for Philips, where he was given the task to do something about the design. ‘Mr. Veersema knew nothing, literally nothing! He had to start all the way from the ground up,’ Jan Balkema from the Institute for Industrial Design (IIV) observed in a report of 22 September 1966.
He occupied the industrial design chair at Delft University from 1957 to 1959. He left Philips in 1964 and started working as an independent freelance advisor for various industries, including Ahrend, Stork and Hatema. Veersema was also involved in the Institute for Industrial Design.

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The Dutch version of this biography is taken from the book Visies op vormgeving, het Nederlandse ontwerpen in teksten deel 2: 1940-2000 (2008) by Frederike Huygen. The following sources have been used for this biography:
– Majorick, B. ‘Vormgeven: scheppen van omgeving. Een vraaggesprek met ir. R.W.J. Veersema, leider Bureau Vormgeving Philips, Eindhoven’, Visie 8 (1962) 15, pp. 4-6.