Christian van der Nat

For me, there is no question that an idea comes to life only when others see its value. To convey this value, determination and belief in one's own idea is obviously essential, but this alone is not enough. It is skills such as: listening, negotiating, persuading, selling, inspiring, presenting, speaking, teaching that ensure an idea is embraced.

This explains my fascination with communication, precisely because purposeful communication is at the root of countless successful businesses and leaders.

Born and raised in the head of Overijssel, but because of my parents who are from Leiden and Voorhout, I feel connected as a northerner with the fast-paced western mentality. Since several years I have been living with immense pleasure in Groningen, a city in which for me these two worlds come together.

I come from an entrepreneurial family that operated within the manufacturing industry, in which I predominantly held marketing and communications roles. As a result, I became familiar with entrepreneurship from an early age and solution-oriented and process-oriented thinking were instilled in me.

After college, in addition to my involvement in the family business, I started my own entrepreneurship and have been involved in several startups. Full of ideas and seeing opportunities everywhere. The blood crawls where it can't go.

Digitalization and design combined with noble ideals run like a thread through my career. Through my interest and experimentation, I have accumulated broad knowledge in digitization, product development, brand strategy, marketing, design, and communications.

My main goal is to find and use the most effective ways to build an idea and market it as a meaningful brand.

This driving force is inextricably linked to NOM's raison d'être, which is to support entrepreneurs from the region in realizing their ideas and growing their businesses. And as Annemarie rightly points out, the value of NOM lies with the NOMMERS themselves. You notice this in the day-to-day collaboration. Together we work toward one indispensable goal: to provide the three northern provinces with unprecedented opportunities and a vibrant economic climate. An ideal that gives me a lot of energy.

For me, as a communications advisor and PMT member of the European Digital Innovation Hub Northern Netherlands (EDIH NN), this means getting stuck into regional digital transformation, with a specific focus on autonomous systems.

I see this as a mission, because the northern part of the Netherlands has the space, intellect and sobriety to look at digitization and its innovations from its own perspective. The biggest challenge, however, is for entrepreneurs, teachers, political leaders, students and employees to take an interest now in the important decisions that determine the future.