Henk Jan Ormel is the Chair of the Dutch Authority on Animal Testing (Centrale Commissie voor Dierproeven, CCD). He was from February until July 2024 a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the European People’s Party (EPP), replacing an outgoing MEP. Before becoming a MEP, he participated for the World Health Organization (WHO) as Senior One Health Expert in 15 WHO Joint External Evaluations (JEE) of the International Health Regulations (IHR-2005). In 2023 he was the Lead of a team of 15 international experts, performing the JEE of Nigeria. From 2012 to 2022 he worked as Senior Veterinary Policy Advisor of the Chief Veterinary Officer of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). He coordinated One Health and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) activities of FAO and was the global coordinator of the Tripartite Secretariat, a cooperation mechanism on One Health of WHO, FAO and WOAH (World Organization on Animal Health). He also coordinated the secretariat of the Global Framework on the progressive control of Transboundary Animal Diseases (GF-TADs) and represented FAO in the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock (GASL). From 2002 to 2012 he was a Member of Parliament of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. During his parliamentary career, he was closely involved in developing laws on Health, Agriculture and One Health and he was also involved in the annual financial decision-making processes of the budgets of the Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Foreign Affairs. In addition, he was Chairman of the Standing Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs from 2007 - 2010 and Vice President of NATO Parliamentary Assembly from 2008-2010. Upon resigning from Parliament in September 2012, Her Majesty the Queen bestowed upon him the Knight in the Order of Oranje Nassau. Before entering Parliament, he practiced for 19 years in the Dutch countryside as a general practitioner specialized in dairy cows. He graduated from The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the State University of Utrecht in 1983.

In April 2025 Henk Jan Ormel was elected Vice-President of IABS-EUROPE