In his youth, Edwin learned how to become competitive in national level sports (cycling, speed skating). His high school education at Coornhert Gymnasium helped shape his analytical and intellectual skills.

Edwin studied Business Administration at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He specialized in Change Management and graduated with honors. His biggest take-aways? “I learned to work in teams in high-stress situations. And I learned that the best performing teams consist of different specializations; of people with very different characters, backgrounds, and passions. From that insight onwards, we won all management games and simulations we entered.”

Edwin’s first job was in Sales. In a team of 160 colleagues, he became a Top 3 Sales Rep within a year. His eagerness to study and learn, especially about people, helped achieve this early success.

In his second job, as a Sales Manager, he grew a team of 12 employees into a department of 70+ people. His employer became market leader, partly due to his contributions. He attributes this success to his personal hands-on sales experience, a focus on bigger accounts, a shift from field to office service, and teams consisting of people with various specializations working together to provide the best total solutions to customers.

As a Senior Consultant, Edwin successfully reorganized banks, insurers, airliners, hospitals, and home care organizations. He attributes his successful interventions to his curiosity, his analytical and intellectual abilities, the hands-on Sales and Management experience he had gained, and his ability to think outside of the box.

In his follow-up role as Managing Consultant, he empowered the Consultancy with a more commercial mindset and working method. This resulted in a 175% increase in revenue within a year of him joining in this role.

As an Entrepreneur, Edwin honed his skills of self-reliance. He learned the power of consistency: the ability to build momentum, strengthen habits, and cultivate discipline. By the compounding effect small, regular efforts are transformed into significant results over time.

When Edwin’s growing awareness of the impact of technology was confronted with the very traditional and technology-shy spirits industry, he invented a new distillation technology. This taught him about the importance of innovation in companies and industries. Edwin has been a successful Inventor for 15 years.