I was born in the seventies (well 79 that is) in the southern part of the Netherlands (the part that would later be known as the Brainport region or “The smartest region of the world“, which – btw – is a totally unrelated fact). I moved down further south when I started studying at the Maastricht University which broadened my horizon in more ways than one but also inspired me to start working in an dynamic and international environment. I started working for EY (formerly Ernst & Young) and moved to Rotterdam. In 2008 took the bold step of moving to Hong Kong.

I arrived two weeks after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and the world turned upside down. I was faced with additional unpaid leave and travelled Asia extensively. My passion for travel and photography really took off from here. Being on the road in Asia is where I feel home and I’m most relaxed while enjoying the waters of Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia with scuba gear on my back. I even managed to go skiing in South-Korea (not as steep as the Alps but the slopes are open 20 hours a day!), one of my other passions. In case you were wondering about the tea related posts, I learned to love drinking a proper cup of tea while in the Maokong tea area around Taipei and appreciate it even more ever since.

I returned to the Brainport area in the Netherlands in 2010 and co-founded the EYnovation™ initiative of EY, supporting ambitious startups and scaleups on their journey to market leadership. As co-founder of the project I’m involved in numerous initiatives in the Netherlands and my personal goal is to support at least one of the startups or scaleups towards a successful IPO (and beyond of course).

In 2013 I became one of the co-founders of one of the few accelerator programs in the world specifically focussed on high tech hardware startups: HighTechXL (formerly: Startupbootcamp HighTechXL). During the 3 months mentor driven program, the startups will accelerate their business and we assist them in finding and validating their business model, launching customers, protecting IP, organizing the supply chain and preparing for investor engagement so they are ready to launch and grow after raising their next round of capital!

With this website I want to create a more permanent place for my thoughts, musings and photographs as I explore my interests. I’m inspired by the transition we’re all experiencing as our lives become more connected and the way this transforms personal and business relationships. This will have great social impact and will transform the business models of the future (my name for this phenomenon is Connected Business Innovation).

I hope you enjoy my digital home and if you have any questions, comments, thoughts or just want to say hi, feel free to leave a comment or contact me. You can find more about me on my profiles on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Disclaimer

Sometimes I’m stupid, sometimes I have opinions others around me don’t agree upon. That’s why I have this disclaimer. This is my personal website and that is exactly what this is, personal. The content is created by me and in no way are these opinions related to my employer, my family, my friends or others. I don’t provide advice, so don’t take my opinion as advice. Don’t make any business – or worse life – decisions based on what you read here. If you want my advice, give me a call and we can make an appointment as advice is always personal and tailored to a specific situation. This also means this website is copyrighted by me, and please respect that.