Jan Timmer

Nothing beats ......... THE NORTH!

My father was born in Oudeschip and my mother in Oosteinde. A little further north and you step right into the Wadden Sea, or onto the beautiful mud flats of course. Proud Groningers we are in our family. Sober, hard workers and not overly keen. Curious as I am, the world outside of Groningen beckoned too. After my hotel school studies, I lived and worked in London for several years before moving to Amsterdam to work at Hotel Okura. Eventually, as so often happens, I returned to the Groningen nest.

ABN AMRO Bank has been an excellent learning experience for me from then on, but the banking jacket really started to get too tight at a certain point. Too many systemic decisions and too little pragmatic dealing with entrepreneurs. Quit my job and first fixed up my house (in Drenthe), until I saw an advertisement (seriously) in the Dagblad van het Noorden. NOM (who?) is looking for a project manager for Flinc. The characteristics of the job appealed to me even then: 'creating something new', 'entrepreneurship', 'guiding startups', 'freedom', 'creativity', 'team performance', 'working together with the northern business community', 'innovation', 'driving', 'seeking venture capital' and 'investing'. With an enthusiastic team we pulled it off, Flinc was new and fresh, Flinc was visible. It still is, by the way, and by now it is impossible to imagine life without it. Although my working area was Drenthe I did move to Groningen-city where I got to know my Anneke, and the Frisian in-laws you get there of course. Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe: I learned to appreciate all three in a different way.

As an employer, NOM is not yet known to everyone. Let me change that. NOM runs on knowledge, that of its employees but even more on that of its network. Entrepreneurs first. Every day we are allowed to read and immerse ourselves in entrepreneurial activities, the changing world and innovations that will determine the future. Be it to entice companies to locate here, to set up R&D activities together or to invest in northern SMEs. We are all passionate and knowledgeable.

Meanwhile, many young colleagues have joined us so there is a healthy mix of fresh eyes and experience. Diversity is being worked on, but that's okay. There are plenty of development opportunities. Some colleagues, like myself, are taking a master's or bachelor's degree and others are taking short specific courses. Every Monday morning we kick off the week together and anyone who wants to can tell their enthusiastic story on the soapbox. We are also socially active outside our core duties and on average a sporty club, with certainly a lot of humor. Meanwhile, I am busy with my fourth position at NOM, as Fund Manager Investment Fund Groningen. So all kinds of things are also possible, but you are in charge. And most importantly: it is above all fun to work at NOM.