From unexpected start to a career in paint
Can you tell us something about your path to R&D and how you ended up here?
That's a good question. I've been working in the paint industry for about 25 years now. But I didn't start out with the idea that this would be my career!
After secondary school, I started a course in social pedagogical work. After six months, I realised that it wasn't really my thing. I dropped out of the course and started working temporarily. I ended up at a tree nursery and quickly realised that working life without any qualifications wasn't going to be great.
Then something small happened that turned out to be decisive. A family member asked me to renovate a kitchen by painting it. It was dark green, 1970s style, and became pink. I loved the enormous difference you can achieve with paint. The transformation. The impact of colour and a completely different experience. That's when I thought: I have to do something creative, make products. That's how I ended up at CIBAP in Zwolle. Cibap is a vocational college for creative courses located in Zwolle, the Netherlands.
Were you already very creative back then?
Funnily enough, no. I'm not very good at drawing or creative painting myself, but I do think very creatively, in terms of solutions, possibilities, and how things can be done differently.
At CIBAP, I gained a broad foundation in various subjects, but it wasn't until my fourth year that I consciously chose to specialise in industrial chemistry, the laboratory side of things. After that, I started studying Chemical Technology at the University of Applied Sciences in Enschede, specialising in coating technology – in short, everything to do with paint.
I loved that combination of chemistry and creativity. I still have that in my work. I don't make art myself, but every day I think creatively about solutions, and when that succeeds, it's also a form of art.
