Van Hedel was born and raised on a family-owned farm in the south of The Netherlands. He studied biology with a specialism in (population) genetics. He graduated from university in 1961 and stayed one more year as an employee. Then he joined Euribrid in their broiler breeding program.
During the years van Hedel was in command, Hybro developed to be the backbone of Euribrid and became a major supplier of broiler genetics worldwide. Van Hedel was responsible for the Hybro breeding program until 1992 and retired some years thereafter.
Euribrid was acquired from Hendrix Feed / Nutreco by Hendrix Genetics in 2007. Onwards, the Hybro division was divested and integrated into Cobb breeding in 2008.
